LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Sfcp ©Wi# i * 

Shelf aS^.VU- 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




HENRY M. STANLEY. 



Stanley's Adventures 



WILDS OF AFRICA. 

A PULL ACCOUNT OF THE 

TWO FAMOUS EXPEDITIONS 

OF 

HENRY M. STANLEY, 

THE FEARLESS AND PEERLESS EXPLORER 

OF 

THE DAKK CONTINENT. 

PERILS ON THE WATERS AND IN THE FORESTS; AMONG WILD BEASTS AND SAVAGE 
MEN; DREADFUL DISEASES AND INNUMERABLE DANGERS; THRILLJNG 
ADVENTURES; MARVELOUS SIGHTS; SAD CASUALTIES; NARROW 
ESCAPES ; MAGNIFICENT TRIUMPHS ; TRAVELS ; DISCOVERIES J 
CONTESTS AND VICTORIES, ARE AMONG THE MANY 
THRILLING SUBJECTS INCLUDED IN THIS 
VOLUME, WHICH COVERS FIVE YEARS 
OF TIME AND FIVE THOU- 
SAND MILES OF TRAVEL, 

including Stanley's final journey 

DOWN THE CONGO, 
if- 6 

FROM ITS HEADWATERS TO THE OCEAN. 

By Hon. J. T. HEADLEY: 

Author of " Napoleon and his Marshals," "Washington and his Generals,'' 

"Sherman and his Campaigns," " Farragut and our Naval Commanders," 

"Sacred Mountains," "Ldfe of General Grant," etc.* etc. 

i DEC 15 18g2. 



RICHLY ILLUSTR^ED.No./£ 

^^ of washiv^S^ 

Cottage Library Publishing House, 

PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, NEW YORK, HARTFORD, CINCINNATI, ST. LOUIS, 

CHICAGO, SAN FRANCISCO, KANSAS CITY, 

ATLANTA 



Copyright, 1882, by Hubbard Bros. 









STANLEY'S 

Wonderful Adventures 



IN 



THE DARK CONTINENT.' 



PREFACE. 



For centuries Africa has been " the dark continent " of our 
globe. The sea-washed edges of this immense tract have been 
known time immemorial. Egypt, at its northeastern corner, 
is the oldest of the governments of the earth ; while the nations 
skirting the Red and the Mediterranean seas were actors in the 
earliest recorded history. But Africa as a whole has been an 
unknown land. 

That it was a fertile land, was demonstrated by the treasures 
brought from its depths by those mighty rivers, the Nile, the 
Niger and the Congo. That it was populous, was proven by 
the fact that its native tribes had furnished to the world with- 
out, forty millions of slaves in the period of two centuries. 
Both the slave-hunter and the slave told wondrous tales of 
the inner depths of the land, but these were mere hints as to 
the actual facts of the case. Africa remained a mystery and 
a riddle, that seemingly were never to be penetrated. 

For many years explorations in Africa were made simply to 
gratify curiosity, or from a desire to penetrate beyond lines 
reached by other men. All the results desired or expected 
were amusement or fame. But in later years African explora- 
tions have assumed an entirely different aspect. From Liv- 
ingstone, who first began to open up "the dark continent," 
to Cameron and Stanley who pierced its very heart, all explo- 
rations have tended to one great end — the civilization and 
Christianization of the vast population that inhabits it. No 

(vii) 



Y \{[ PREFACE. 

matter what the ruling motive may have been in each case, 
whether, as in Livingstone, to introduce Christianity ; or, in 
Baker, to put a stop to the slave trade ; or, in Stanley, to un- 
lock the mystery of ages, still the tendency has been the same : 
to bring Africa into the family of continents instead of being 
the earth's "pariah;" to throw light on this black spot of 
our planet, and make those who inhabit it practically and 
morally, what they are really, a portion of the human race. 
Mungo Park, Denham and Clapperton made explorations 
of considerable value early in the present century, but Liv- 
ingstone with thirty years of toil in Africa was the real 
pioneer of successful work. In 1840, at the age of twenty- 
five, he embarked as a missionary to South Africa, thus en- 
tering the land where he lived and died, and which he never 
1 

left save on two brief visits to his native land. 

After Livingstone's last return to Africa, circumstantial re- 
ports of his death were received. These were subsequently 
contradicted and other reports of death came. He wrote 
but few letters and some of these failed to reach their desti- 
nation ; his fate, therefore, remained in painful uncertainty 
until Bennett sent Stanley to discover him, dead or alive. 

This commission led to the two expeditions of Stanley, the 
thrilling events of which are narrated in this volume. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

HENRY M. STANLEY. 

PAGE 

Stanley's birth-place — Early roving — Extensive travels — Correspond- 
ent in Abyssinia — The lost Dr. Livingstone — Bennett's confidence 
in Stanley — Stanley's marching orders — His interviewwith Bennett 
— Off to his work — En route for Africa — Stanley meets Livingstone 
— Stanley's extreme measures, 17 

CHAPTER II. 

DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA, 

Inaccessibility of Africa — Extent of Africa — Products of the land, . 42 
CHAPTER III. 

STANLEY'S SEARCH FOR LIVINGSTONE. 

Preparations for the march — The start inland — Wretched surround- 
ings — Death of the horses — Jungle travel — The belles of Kisemo — 
News of Livingstone — African fever, 49 

CHAPTER IV. 

WILD EXPERIENCES. 

Slow marching — Irreparable losses — The sultana's judgment — Deliver- 
ance from difficulties — In a pitiable plight — New burdens — Incipient 
mutiny — Forgiveness — Murderous attempt — A man left behind, . . 68 

CHAPTER V. 

TRIALS BY THE WAY. 

Down with fever — Strange tribes — A cowardly mob — The country 
described — What Africa may be — Tribes of Africa — Marks and 
weapons — African ornamentation — A nobler tribe — Warriors armed 

— Filthy homes — S©cial customs — Agriculture, ; . 93 

(ix) 



x CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

ADVENTURES IN GREAT VARIETY. 

PAGE 

Chiefs of Tabna — Fighting with Mirambo — A Flying caravan — De- 
spondency—Triumph — Shaw left — The hunter's paradise — On the 
hunt — Crocodiles, ' 128 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE END APPROACHES. 

Mutinous conduct — News of a white man — Hastening to Ujiji — A 
screaming woman — A narrow escape, 150 

CHAPTER VIII. 

STANLEY MEETS LIVINGSTONE. 

Ujiji in sight — The village entered — The doctor at hand — The lost 
found — Opening his mail — Talking and eating — A long talk — Am- 
bition satisfied, t, 161 

CHAPTER IX. 

STANLEY'S HOMEWARD MARCH. 

Sweet converse — Livingstone's surprise — Homeward bound — Parting 
with Livingstone — Tribute to Livingstone — Passing the swamps — 
Again at Zanzibar 180 

CHAPTER X. 

STANLEY'S SECOND EXPEDITION. 

Journeying inland — Lost in the jungle — Lion soup — Plenty of food — 
Edward Pocoke's death — Letter of condolence — Burial of Pocoke — 
Magic doctor, 197 

CHAPTER XL 

PRESSING TOWARD THE INTERIOR. 

A hostile surprise — A battle — A massacre — Summary retribution — 
Confident amid perils — Immense table-lands — Geological history, . 216 



CONTENTS. x [ 



CHAPTER XII. 

EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA. 

PAGE 

Getting to work — Journal of the explorations — Navigating the lake— 
A narrow escape— Review of the route, ........... 231 

CHAPTER XIII. 

EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA. 

Source of the Nile — King Mtesa — Royally entertained — The needed, 
missionary — Wild justice, 243 

CHAPTER XIV. 

EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA. 

A night surprise — Narrow escape — In a storm — A welcome sight — 
A treacherous trick — A critical moment — Terrible recompense — A 
night tempest — Again in the storm, . . 256 

CHAPTER XV. 

AN INTERVAL OF REST. 

Proposals to abandon camp — Rest after toil — Stanley's day-dreams — 
Seeking canoes — The king's strategy— Treachery thwarted, . . . 277 

CHAPTER XVI. 

PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER EXPLORATIONS. 

Organizing an attack — Terrible punishment — Completely subdued — 
New schemes — The Albert Nyanza — Military escort, 291 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE EXPEDITION TO ALBERT NYANZA. 

Snow-capped mountains — A strange race — Toward the Albert Ny- 
anza — A miserable failure — The inglorious return — Mtesa's friend- 
ship — Lakes of Karagwe — Sources of the Nile — Exploring the 
Kagera — An African village — Bead currency, 304 



x ii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

EXPLORATIONS OF LAKE TANGANIKA. 

PAGE 

Cameron's outlet — A wholesale massacre — Where is the outlet? — 
Difficulties in the way — Curious customs, 331 

CHAPTER XIX. 

NYANGWE AND ITS HISTORY. 

A beautiful region — The slave trade — Slave pens — Hunting the slaves 
— How to stop it, 345 

CHAPTER XX. 

ORGANIZING A NEW EXPEDITION. 

Stanley's new purposes — Napoleonic spirit — An escort secured— Afri- 
can markets — Tipo-Tipo's army, 356 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THROUGH THE 'FORESTS. 

The start — Discouraging progress — Wonders of the forest — Soko 
skulls, 368 

CHAPTER XXII. 

FLOATING DOWN THE CONGO. 

Terrible suspense — Drifting downward — A stratagem — Departure of 
Tipo-Tipo — A mournful scene, 379 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

DESCENT OF THE CONGO. 

Beset by cannibals — Beautiful scenery — Zaidi in peril — Stanley as a 
strategist — Seeking man-meat — Battling onward — Portuguese mus- 
kets — Chased again — Famine at hand — Hospitable entertainment — 
" Stanley pool " — Brotherly proceedings, . 390 



CONTENTS. x jii 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

AMONG THE CATARACTS. 

PAGE 

Wild surroundings — Terrible rapids — Soudi's marvelous escape — 
Narrow escape of Stanley — Cluster of cataracts — Canoes on moun- 
tain tops, 419 

CHAPTER XXV. 

EXPERIENCES BY THE WAY. 

Canoe building — A terrific pass — Trial for theft — Touching scene — 
Unexpected dilemma — A merry evening, 435 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

DEATH OF FRANK POCOKE. 

Pocoke's value to Stanley — Stanley in peril — Drowning of Pocoke — 
Stanley in grief — Pocoke's character, 448 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE COMPLETED WORK. 

Incipient mutiny — In despair — A perilous moment — Brightening pros- 
pects — Captured for stealing — Word to the outside world — A starv- 
ing company — Greeted by friends — Approaching Zanzibar — Home 
again — Stanley's crowning honor, . ." 460 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 



Henry M. Stanley (Frontispiece). 

Zanzibar, . 5 1 

Ceremonies of the Queen's Court, , 79 

Shooting Hippopotami near Lake Ugenlo , 83 

Execution for Witchcraft, . in 

African Warriors and Warfare, ...117 

Waste of Human Life, 125 

A Council of War, -131 

Spring-bok Browsing, 145 

Stanley Meeting Livingstone, 1 69 

Village on Tanganika Lake, 185 

Burial of Edward Pocoke, 211 

Reception of Mtesa's Body-guard, 247 

A Treacherous Assault, 265 

Stanley's Dash Across Unyoro, 305 

Hot Springs of Mtagata, 323 

Setting out to Cross Lake Tanganika, 339 

Scene in Camp at Nyangwe, 359 

Natives Hunting Sokos, 375 

Fighting our Way Around, 395 

Boat Fight with the Savages, 409 

Death of Kalulu, 425 

Drowning of Frank Pocoke, i . * . .455 

Shooting the Rapids, 467 



(XV) 



CHAPTER I. 

HENRY M. STANLEY. 

STANLEY is one of those characters which 
forcibly illustrate the effect of republican 
institutions in developing strong men. Des- 
potism* cannot fetter thought — that is free every- 
where — but it can and does restrain its outwork- 
ing into practical action. Free institutions do not 
make great men, but they allow those endowed by 
nature with extraordinary gifts free scope for 
action. This fact never had, perhaps, a more 
striking illustration than in the French Revolution. 
The iron frame-work of despotism had rested so 
long over the heads of the people that it had be- 
come rusted in its place, and no individual force 
or strength could rend it asunder. But when the 
people, in their fury, shattered it into fragments, 
there was exhibited the marvelous effects of indi- 
vidual character. A lieutenant of artillery vaulted 
to the throne of France and made marshals and 
dukes and kings of plebeians. A plebeian him- 
self, he took to his plebeian bed the daughter of 
the Caesars. He took base-born men and pitted 
them against nobles of every degree, and the ple- 
beians proved themselves the better men. In 
other words, he put men against titles, and the 

2 (17) 



! g IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

tile s went down before the men. Thus, no mat- 
ter how despotic he became, he and his marshals 
and new-made kin^s were the most terrible demo- 
cracy. The mighty changes that were then 
wrought show what results may be expected 
when the whole world shall be thus set free, and 
every man be allowed to strike his best and 
strongest blow. When the race is thus let loose 
on the planet we inhabit, we shall see the fulfill- 
ment of that prophecy, "a nation shall be born in 
a day." 

The same truth is apparent in our own count, y, 
though its exhibitions are not so sudden and start- 
ling. Indeed they could not be, because this free- 
dom of action has no restraints to break through, 
and hence no violent effort is required. Every 
man grows and expands by degrees without let or 
hindrance. In a despotism, Webster would pro- 
bably have taught school in a log school-house all 
his days, and the " mill-boy of the slashes " never 
would have made the forum of a nation ring with his 
eloquence, nor the "rail-splitter" have become 
the foremost man of his time, nor the "tanner-boy" 
the president of the republic. Republican institu- 
tions never made any of those men — they simply 
allowed them to make themselves. 

Stanley is among the latest and most extraordi- 
nary examples of this. It is folly to point to such 
men as he, as a stimulus to youthful ambition. 
No amount of study or effort can make such a boy 



STANLE Y ' S BIR TH-PLA CE. j Q 

or man as he was and is. The energy, daring, 
self-confidence, promptness and indomitable will 
were born in him, not acquired. The Latin pro- 
verb, Poeta nascitur,non fit, "the poet is born, not 
made," is not truer of the poet than of a character 
such as his. His peculiarities may be pointed out 
for the admiration of others, his good qualities 
may teach youth how perseverance, and determi- 
nation, and work will elevate a man, whatever be 
his walk in life. One born with a combination of 
qualities like Stanley's, must have room given him 
or he will make room. He has such an abun- 
dance of energy and will-power that they must 
have scope for action. A despotism could not have 
repressed him. He would either have become a 
wanderer or adventurer in strange lands, or he 
would have headed ' a revolution and vaulted to 
power or to a scaffold, as others had done before 
him. 

But although Stanley developed his character 
under free institutions, he was not born under 
them, he being a native of Wales. He was born 
near Denbigh, in 1840. His father's name was 
Rowland. When three years old, he was sent to 
the poor-house at St. Asaph, to get an education. 
Here the poor, unpromising lad remained till he 
had finished such an education as this institution 
could furnish, and then he sought employment as 
a teacher, and for a year was employed as such 
at Mold, Flintshire. But the strong instincts of 



20 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

his nature then began to show themselves. He 
felt that a school-teacher's life, however honora- 
ble and useful, could not be his, and, therefore, 
with his scant earnings, he shipped as cabin-boy 
in a vessel bound for New Orleans. Having ar- 
rived in safety, he began to look about for employ- 
ment. By what lucky chance it happened we do 
not know, but he fell into the hands of a merchant 
named Stanley, who became so attached to the 
frank, energetic, ambitious youth, that he finally 
adopted him and gave him his name. Thus the 
Welsh boy Rowland, became the American youth 
Stanley. 

Fortune had certainly smiled on him, and his 
future seemed secure. As the partner, and even- 
tually heir of his benefactor, as he doubtless would 
become, fortune, ease and a luxurious life lay be- 
fore him. But even here, so pleasantly situated 
and cared for, the same restless spirit that has 
since driven him over the world, exhibited itself, 
and he wandered off into the wilds of Arkansas, 
and in his log-cabin on the banks of the Wichita 
River, with the pine-trees moaning above him, he 
dwelt for a long time, among the strange, wild 
dreams of his imaginative and daring youth. His 
adopted father mourned him as dead, never ex- 
pecting to behold him again. But the youth made 
his way to the Mississippi, and going on board a 
flat-boat, became the companion of the rough west- 
ern characters to be found on these boats, and 



EARL Y RO VING. 2 j 

slowly floated down to New Orleans and was re- 
ceived by his overjoyed father as one risen from 
the dead. 

But just here, fortune, which seemed to have 
had him in her special care, took him another step 
forward by apparently deserting him. His adopted 
father suddenly died without making his will. His 
place and prospective heirship both disappeared 
together, and the curtain was let down between 
him and a pleasant, successful future. Doubtless 
that father intended to provide for his adopted 
son, but now all the property went to the natural 
legal heirs, and he was once more thrown upon 
the world. In the delirium of an African fever, 
tossing in his hammock, far from the haunts of 
civilization, there came back to him remembrances 
of his life at this point. We learn that impelled by 
his roving dispositiou he wandered away among 
the California miners, and at last among the In- 
dians, and sat by their council fires. He seemed 
destined to see every phase of human life, to be- 
come acquainted with the roughest characters, to 
prepare him for the wildest of all men, the Afri- 
can savage. This kind of life also toughened and 
hardened the fibre of the youth, so that he settled 
down into the man with a constitution of iron, 
without which he could not have endured the 
trials he has since undergone, and still retain his 
health and physical powers unworn. 

At this time a new field opened before him. 



22 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

The civil war broke out, and being a Southern 
man, he enlisted in the Confederate army. This 
was a kind of service just adapted to his peculiar 
character, one in which a man with the courage, 
daring, energy, promptness and indomitable will 
that he possessed, was sure to win fame and pro- 
motion. But before he had time to exhibit these 
qualities, fate, that seemed against him to human 
eyes, again advanced him a step toward success 
by causing him to be taken prisoner by the Union 
troops. As a prisoner he was worthless, and the 
Union cause really having his sympathies, he pro- 
posed to enlist in the Northern army. 

Whether the military authorities were afraid of 
this sudden conversion or not daring to give too 
much freedom of action to one who showed by his 
whole bearing and language, that there was no 
"undertaking too daring for him to attempt, we 
are not told, but they put him where he would 
probably have little chance to show what stuff he 
was made of, and he was placed on the iron-clad 
ship Ticonderoga. It is said, he was released as 
prisoner and volunteered to enlist in the navy. 
Be that as it may, though totally unfit for service 
of any kind on board of a man-of-war, he soon 
became acting ensign. 

At the close of the war he looked about for 
some field of active service, and what little war he 
had seen seemed to fit his peculiar character, and 
hearing that the Cretans were about to attempt to 



EXTENSIVE TRAVELS. 2 * 

throw off the Turkish yoke, he resolved to join 
them. He proceeded thither with two other 
Americans, after having first made an engagement 
with the New York Herald, as its correspondent. 
Disgusted, it is said, with the insurgent leaders, 
he abandoned his purpose, and having a sort of 
roving commission from Mr. Bennett, he deter- 
mined to travel in the East. But he and his 
fellow-travelers were attacked by Turkish brig- 
ands, and robbed of all their money and clothing. 
They laid their complaint before Mr. Morris, then 
our minister at Constantinople, who in turn laid it 
before the Turkish government, and at the same 
time advanced them funds to supply their wants. 

After various journeyings Stanley returned to 
England. Here a strong desire seized him to 
visit the place of his nativity in Wales, the house 
where he was born, and the humble dwelling 
where he received the first rudiments of his edu- 
cation at St. Asaph. One can imagine the feel- 
ings with which this bronzed young man, who had 
traveled so far and wide, entered the quiet valley 
from which he had departed so long ago to seek 
his fortune. It speaks well for his heart, that his 
sympathies turned at once toward the poor-house 
of which he had been an inmate in his childhood. 
Remembering that the greatest boon that could 
have been conferred at that time on him would 
have been a good, generous dinner, he resolved 
to give those poor children one. The daring 



2 a IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

young adventurer, in the presence of those simple, 
wonderstruck children, would have made a noble 
subject for a picture. We venture to say that 
Mr. Stanley enjoyed that unobtrusive meal in that 
quiet Welsh valley more than he has ever enjoyed 
a banquet with nobles and princes ; and as the 
shadows of life lengthen he will look back on it 
with more real pleasure. He addressed the little 
ones of the Institution, giving them a familiar talk, 
telling them that he was once one of that house- 
hold, accompanying his words with good advice, 
saying for their encouragement, and to stimulate 
them to noble endeavors, that all he had been in 
the past and all he hoped to be in the future, he 
attributed to the education which was begun in 
that poor-house. 

This was a real episode in his eventful life, and, 
though it doubtless soon passed away in the more 
stirring scenes on which he entered, yet the 
remembrance of it still lingers around that quiet, 
retired Welsh valley, and, to-day, the name of 
Stanley is a household word there, and is the 
pride and glory of its simple inhabitants. And as 
time goes on and silvers those dark hairs, and the 
"almond-tree flourishes" and " desire fails because 
man goeth to his long home," he, too, will remem- 
ber it as a green oasis he once longed to see and 
found in the arid desert. 

In 1867, when he was twenty-seven years of 
age, he returned to the United States and, in the 



IN AB YSSINIA . 2 ? 

next year, accompanied the English army in its 
campaign against Theodore, king of Abyssinia, 
which was set on foot to revenge the wrongs this 
tyrant had committed against the subjects and rep- 
resentatives of the British government. Stanley 
went as correspondent of the New York Herald, 
and gave a vivid and clear account of the painful 
march and skirmishes up to the last great battle 
in the king's stronghold, where, with a gallant dash, 
the fortress was taken, the king killed and the war 
ended. With that promptness in acting, which is 
one of his chief characteristics, he at once dis- 
patched the news of the victory and the ending of 
the campaign to London, outstripping the govern- 
ment dispatches sent by the commander-in-chief, 
so that one morning the readers of the London 
newspapers knew that of which the government 
was ignorant. This, of course, was a genuine sur- 
prise. A young American newspaper correspon- 
dent, without a vessel at his command, had, never- 
theless, by his enterprise, beaten the government 
messenger, and steady old conservative England 
was disgusted to find its time-honored custom re- 
versed, which was that the government should 
first give notice of successes to the public, leaving 
to newspaper correspondents to fill up the minor 
details. But an enterprising young American had 
furnished the important news, leaving the British 
government the secondary duty of supplying these 
details. Notwithstanding the admiration of the 



2 5 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

enterprise that had accomplished this great feat, 
there was a ludicrous aspect to the affair, in the 
position in which it placed official personages, that 
raised a quiet laugh on both continents. Stanley's 
letters contain the best history of that expedition 
that has been written. This was still another on- 
ward step in the great work before him, of which 
he, as yet had no intimation. 

The next year, 1868, he returned to the United 
States, and in the following year was sent by the 
Herald into Spain, to follow the fortunes of the 
civil war there, as correspondent. Like every- 
thing else that he undertook, he performed his 
duties more than faithfully. Exposure, danger, 
hardships, nothing interfered when there was a 
prospect of acquiring valuable information. It 
mattered not to him whether he was on the mar- 
gin or in the vortex of battle — he never thought 
of anything but the object before him and toward 
which he bent all his energies. His letters from 
the seat of war not only gave the best description 
of the battles fought and of the military position 
of affairs, but, also, of the political state of the 
kingdom. But while he was here, considering 
himself fixed down for an indefinite period, for 
Spain is proverbial for the protracted duration of 
its civil wars, Mr. Bennett, in Paris, was planning 
an expedition to go in search of Dr. Livingstone, 
buried, alive or dead, somewhere in the heart of 
Africa. The sympathies of everybody were en- 



THE LOST DR. LIVINGSTONE. 2 * 

listed in his fortunes, yet the British government, 
though he had done so much to enhance the fame 
of his native country, refused to stir a step toward 
ascertaining his fate, discovering his whereabouts, 
or relieving him if in want. 

The Royal Geographical Society, ashamed of 
the apathy and indifference of the government, 
had started a subscription to raise funds from pri- 
vate sources to defray the expenses of an expe- 
dition to go in search of him. In the meantime this 
American editor, scorning alike state patronage or 
private help, conceived the bold project of finding 
him himself. Looking around for a suitable leader 
to command an expedition, his eye rested upon 
Stanley in Spain. And here should be noted the 
profound sagacity of Mr. Bennett in selecting such 
a leader for this desperate expedition, that was to 
go no one knew where, and end no one knew how. 

Most people thought it was a mammoth adver- 
tisement of the New York Herald, nothing more. 
If he was in earnest why did he not select some 
one of the many African explorers who were 
familiar with the regions of Central Africa, and 
had explored in the vicinity of where Livingstone 
was, by the best judges, supposed to be, if alive ? 
Men, for instance, like Speke, Baker, Burton, 
Grant and others. This certainly would have 
given great eclat to the expedition, and, if it 
failed in its chief object, would unquestionably 
have furnished new facts for the geographer and 



2 8 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

the man of science. But to send one who made 
no pretensions to science, no claims to be a me- 
teorologist, botanist, geologist, or to be familiar 
with astronomical calculations, all of which are 
indispensable to a great explorer, seemed absurd. 
But Mr. Bennett had no intention of making 
new scientific or geographical discoveries. He 
had but one object in view— to find Dr. Living- 
stone — and on the true Napoleonic system of se- 
lecting the best man to accomplish a single object, 
he, with Napoleonic sagacity, fixed on Stanley. 
The celebrated men who would have given greater 
distinction to the enterprise would, doubtless, 
divide up their time and resources between scien- 
tific research and the chief object of the expe- 
dition, and thus cause delays that might defeat it ; 
or, with more or less of the martinet about them, 
push their researches only to a reasonable extent 
and be content with reports instead of personal 
investigation. But he wanted a man who had but 
one thing to do, and not only that, but a man who 
would accomplish the errand on which he was sent 
or die in the attempt. This was to be no mere 
well-regulated expedition, that was to turn back 
when all reasonable efforts had been made. It 
was one that, if desperate straits should come, 
would resort to desperate means, and he knew 
that with Stanley at its head this would be done. 
He knew that Stanley would fetch out Livingstone, 
dead or alive, or leave his own bones to bleach 



BENNETTS CONFIDENCE IN STANLE Y. 2 g 

in the depths of Africa. Stanley was compara- 
tively young, it was true, and had always accom- 
panied, never led, expeditions. He knew nothing of 
Africa, or how an expedition should be organized or 
furnished — it mattered not. Bennett knew he had 
resources within himself — nerves that never flinch, 
courage that no amount of danger could daunt, a 
will that neither an African fever nor a wasted form 
could break down, and a resolution of purpose that 
the presence of death itself could not shake, while, to 
complete all, he had a quickness and accuracy of 
judgment in a perilous crisis, followed by equally 
quick and right action, which would extricate him 
out of difficulties that would overwhelm men who 
had all his courage, will and energy, but were 
slower in coming to a decision. 

This latter quality is one of the rarest ever 
found even in the strongest men; to think quick 
and yet think right, to come to a right decision as 
if by impulse, is a power few men possess. To 
go swift and yet straight as the cannon ball or 
lightning's flash, gives to any man's actions ten- 
fold power. In this lay the great secret of Na- 
poleon's success. His campaigns were started, 
while those of others were under discussion, and 
the thunder and tumult of battle cleared his pre- 
ceptions and judgment so that no unexpected dis- 
aster could occur that he was not ready to meet. 
This quickness and accuracy of thought and ac- 
tion is one of the prominent characteristics of 



n Q /A THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 

Stanley, and more than once saved his life and his 
expedition. 

On the 1 6th day of October, 1869, as he was 
sitting in his hotel at Madrid, having just returned 
from the carnage of Valencia, a telegram was 
handed him. The thunder of cannon and tumult 
of battle had scarce ceased echoing in his ear 
when this telegram startled him from his reverie : 
" Come to Paris on important business." In a 
moment all was hurry and confusion, his books 
and pictures were packed, his washed and un- 
washed clothes were stowed away, and in two 
hours his trunks were strapped and labeled 
" Paris." The train started at 3 o'clock, and he 
still had some time to say good-bye to his friends, 
and here by mere accident comes out one of the 
most pleasing traits of his character. Of the 
friends he is thus to leave, he merely refers to 
those of the American legation, but dwells with 
regret on the farewell he must give to two little 
children, whom he calls his " fast friends." Like 
a sudden burst of sunlight on a landscape, this 
unconscious utterance reveals a heart as tender 
as it is strong, and increases our interest in the 
man quite as much as in the explorer. At 3 
o'clock he was thundering on toward Paris, ready, 
as he said, to go to the battle or the banquet, all 
the same. His interview with Mr. Bennett reveals 
the character of both these men so clearly that we 
give it in Stanley's own words : 



STANLEY'S MARCHING ORDERS. 3 1 

" At 3 p. m. I was on my way, and being obliged 
to stop at Bayonne a few hours, did not arrive at 
Paris until the following night. I went straight to 
the ' Grand Hotel,' and knocked at the door of 
Mr. Bennett's room. 

"'Come in,' I heard a voice say. Entering, I 
found Mr. Bennett in bed. 

" 'Who are you ?' he asked. 

" 'My name is Stanley,' I answered. 

" 'Ah, yes, sit down ; I have important business 
on hand for you." 

" After throwing over his shoulders his robe de 
chambre, Mr. Bennett asked: 'Where do you 
think Livingstone is ?' 

" ' I really do not know, sir.' 

" 'Do you think he is alive ?' 

" 'He may be, and he may not be,' I answered. 

" 'Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be 
found, and I am going to send you to find him.' 

" ' What/ said I, ' do you really think I can find 
Dr. Livingstone ? Do you mean me to go to 
Central Africa?' 

" ' Yes ; I mean that you shall go and find him, 
wherever you hear that he is, and get what news 
you can of him ; and, perhaps ' — delivering him- 
self thoughtfully and deliberately — 'the old man 
may be in want. Take enough with you to help 
him, should he require it. Of course, you will act 
according to your own plans, and you will do 
what is best — but find Livingstone !' 



32 W THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

" Said I, wondering at the cool order of sending 
one to Central Africa to search for a man whom 
I, in common with most other men, believed to be 
dead : ' Have you considered seriously the great 
expense you are liable to incur on account of this 
little journey ?' 

•' 'What will it cost?' he asked abruptly. 

" ' Burton and Speke's journey to Central Africa 
cost between ^3,000 and ,£5,000, and I fear it 
cannot be done under ^2,500.' 

" 'Well, I will tell you what you will do. Draw 
a thousand pounds now, and when you have gone 
through that, draw another thousand, and when 
that is spent draw another thousand, and when 
you have finished that draw another thousand, 
and so on — but find Livingstone !' 

" Surprised, but not confused, at the order, for 
I knew that Mr. Bennett, when he had once made 
up his mind, was not easily drawn aside from 
his purpose, I yet thought, seeing it was such a 
gigantic scheme, that he had not quite considered 
in his own mind the pros and the cons of the 
case, I said : ' I have heard that, should your 
father die, you would sell the Herald, and retire 
from business.' 

" ' Whoever told you so is wrong, for there is 
not money enough in the United States to buy the 
New York Herald. My father has made it a 
great paper, but I mean to make it a greater. I 
mean, that it shall be a newspaper in the true sense 



INTER VIE W WITH BENNE TT. « ? 

of the word ; I mean that it shall publish whatever 
news may be useful to the world, at no matter 
what cost.' 

" 'After that/ said I, 'I have nothing more to 
say. Do you mean me to go straight on to 
Africa to search for Dr. Livingstone ? ' 

" ' No ; I wish you to go to the inauguration of 
the Suez Canal first, and then proceed up the 
Nile. I hear Baker is about starting for Upper 
Egypt. Find out what you can about his expe- 
dition, and, as you go up, describe, as well as pos- 
sible, whatever is interesting for tourists, and then 
write up a guide — a practical one — for Lower 
Egypt ; tell us about whatever is worth seeing, 
and how to see it. 

" ' Then you might as well go to Jerusalem ; I 
hear that Captain Warren is making some inter- 
esting discoveries there. Then visit Constanti- 
nople, and find out about the khedive and sultan. 

" i Then — let me see — you might as well visit 
the Crimea and those old battle-grounds. Then 
go across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. I 
hear there is a Russian expedition bound for 
Khiva. From thence you may get through Persia 
to India; you could write an interesting letter 
from Persepolis. 

" • Bagdad will be close on your way to India ; 
suppose you go there and write up something 
about the Euphrates Valley Railway. Then, when 
you have come to India, you may go after Dr. 

3 



34 



/A THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



Livingstone. Probably you will hear by that time 
that Livingstone is on his way to Zanzibar ; but, 
if not, go into the interior and find him, if alive. 
Get what news you can ; and if you find that he 
is dead, bring all possible proofs you can of his 
being dead. That is all. Good-night, and God 
be with you.' 

" ' Good-night, sir,' I said, ' what is in the power 
of human nature I will do ; and on such an errand 
as I go upon, God will be with me.' 

"I lodged with young Edward King, who is 
making such a name in New England. He was 
just the man who would have delighted to tell the 
journal he was engaged upon what young Mr. 
Bennett was doing, and what errand I was bound 
upon. I should have liked to exchange opinions 
with him upon the probable results of my journey, 
but dared not do so. Though oppressed with the 
great task before me, I had to appear as if only 
going to be present at the Suez Canal. Young 
King followed me to the express train bound for 
Marseilles, and at the station we parted — he to 
go and read the newspapers at Bowles's Reading- 
room, I to Central Africa and — who knows ? There 
is no need to recapitulate what I did before going 
to Central Africa." 

He started on his travels, and we hear of him 
first in Constantinople, from our minister there, 
Mr. Morris, who had relieved him and his com- 
panions when plundered by Turkish brigands. 



OFF TO HIS WORK. * c 

One of Mr. Stanley's traveling companions who 
had been robbed with himself, accused him, in a 
published letter, of dishonesty regarding the money 
our minister had advanced. It is not necessary 
to go into this accusation or a refutation of it now. 
It is sufficient to say that Mr. Morris declared the 
whole charge false, and as the shortest and most 
complete refutation of such a charge, we give Mr. 
Morris's own views of Mr. Stanley: 

"The uncouth young man whom I first knew 
had grown into a perfect man of the world, pos- 
sessing the appearance, the manners and the 
attributes of a perfect gentleman. The story of 
the adventures which he had gone through and 
the dangers he had passed during his absence, 
were perfectly marvelous, and he became the lion 
of our little circle. Scarcely a day passed but he 
was a guest at my table, and no one was more 
welcome, for I insensibly grew to have a strong 
attachment for him myself." In speaking further 
on of his projected travels, he said he advised him 
to go to Persia, which Stanley suddenly came to 
the conclusion to follow out. " He therefore," he 
says, " busied himself in procuring letters of intro- 
duction to the Russian authorities in the Caucasus, 
in Georgia and in other countries through which 
he would have to pass." 

This is quite enough to put to rest the scandal, 
which at one time produced quite a sensation, that 
Stanley had cheated Mr. Morris and misappro- 



36 IA THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

priated the funds advanced by him. . No explana- 
tions are required after this indorsement. 

Of this long and hazardous journey, the columns 
of the Herald gave all the principal details. There 
is nothing in them that illustrates the peculiar 
characteristics of Stanley more than, or even so 
much as, his subsequent acts, hence his brief sum- 
mary of this tour, that seems to have had no defi- 
nite object whatever, except to give the corres- 
pondent of the Herald something to do, until the 
proper moment to start on the expedition for Liv- 
ingstone, is, perhaps, the best account that could 
be given, so far as the general reader is concerned. 
All we can say is, it seems a very roundabout way 
in which to commence such an expedition. 

" I went up the Nile and saw Mr. Higginbotham, 
chief engineer in Baker's expedition, at Philae, and 
was the means of preventing a duel between him 
and a mad young Frenchman, who wanted to fight 
Mr. Higginbotham with pistols, because Mr. Hig 
ginbotham resented the idea of being taken for an 
Egyptian through wearing a fez cap. I had a talk 
with Captain Warren at Jerusalem, and descended 
one of the pits with a sergeant of engineers to see 
the marks of Tyrian workmen on the foundation- 
stones of the Temple of Solomon. I visited the 
mosques of Stamboul with the minister resident 
of the United States, and the American consul- 
general. I traveled over the Crimean battle- 
grounds with Kinglake's glorious books for refer- 



£A ROUTE FOR AFRICA. .y 

ence. I dined with the widow of General Li- 
prandi, at Odessa. I saw the Arabian traveler, 
Palgrave, at Trebizond, and Baron Nicolay, the 
civil governor of the Caucasus, at Tiflis. I lived 
with the Russian embassador while at Teheran, 
and wherever I went through Persia I received the 
most hospitable welcome from the gentlemen of 
the Indo-European Telegraph Company; and, fol- 
lowing the example of many illustrious men, I 
wrote my name upon one of the Persepolitan 
monuments. In the month of August, 1870, I 
arrived in India." 

In completing this sketch of Mr. Stanley's life 
and character, it is necessary only to add that his 
after career fully justified the high estimate Mr. 
Bennett had placed on his extraordinary qualities. 
These were tested to their utmost extent in his 
persistent, determined search after the man he was 
sent to find. But we believe that Livingstone, 
when found, with whom Stanley passed some 
months ; exerted a powerful influence on the char- 
acter which we have attempted to portray. Stan- 
ley was comparatively young, full of life and am- 
bition, with • fame, greater probably than he had 
ever anticipated, now within his reach. Yet, here 
in the heart of Africa, he found a man well on in 
years, of a world-wide fame, yet apparently indif- 
ferent to it. 

This man who had spent his life in a savage 
country, away from home and all the pleasures of 



3S 



IA THE WILDS 01 AFRICA. 



civilized society, who expected to pass the remnant 
of his days in the same isolated state, was looking 
beyond this life. He was forgetting himself, in 
the absorbing purpose to benefit others. Fame 
to him was nothing, the welfare of a benighted 
race everything. This was a new revelation to 
the ambitious young man. Hitherto he had thought 
only of himself, but here was a man, earnest, 
thoughtful, sincere, who was living to carry out a 
great idea — no less than the salvation of a conti- 
nent — nay more than this, who was working not 
for himself, but for a Master, and that Master, the 
God of the universe. He remained with him in 
close companionship for months, and intimate rela- 
tions with a man borne up by such a lofty purpose, 
inspired by such noble feelings, and looking so far 
away beyond time for his reward, could not but 
have an important influence on a man with Stan- 
ley's noble and heroic qualities. It was a new 
revelation to him. He had met, not a successful, 
bold explorer, but a Christian, impelled and sus- 
tained by the great and noble idea of regenerating 
a race and honoring the God of man and the earth. 
Such a lengthened companionship with a man 
of this character could but lift Stanley to a 
higher plane, and inspire him with a loftier pur- 
pose than that of a mere explorer. 

But while this expedition brought out all the pe- 
culiar traits we have spoken of, yet his later expedi- 
tion developed qualities which circumstances had 



LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 



39 



not previously shown. When from this he emerged 
on the Atlantic coast with his company, he was 
hailed with acclamations and a British vessel was 
placed at his disposal in which to return home. But 
the ease and comfort offered him, and the applause 
awaiting him, were nothing compared with the 
comfort and welfare of the savage band that had 
for so long a time been his companions and his 
only reliance in the perils through which he had 
passed. True, they had often been intractable, 
disobedient and trustless, but still they had been 
his companions in one of the most perilous marches 
ever attempted by man, and with that large charity 
that allowed for the conduct of these untutored, 
selfish animals of the desert, he forgot it all and 
would do nothing, think of nothing, till their wants 
were supplied and their welfare secured. He 
would see them safe back to the spot from which 
he took them, and did, before he took care of him- 
self. A noble nature there asserted itself, and we 
doubt not that every one of those poor ignorant 
savages would go to the death for that brave man 
to whom their own welfare was so dear. 

In this sketch of Mr. Stanley, as it appears to 
us from the record of his life, we have omitted to 
notice those faults which are incident to poor hu- 
man nature, in whatever person it is enshrined. 
But perhaps this is as good a place as any to notice 
the charge brought against him by some persons 
in the English press, of having killed natives, not 



aq IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

in self-defense but to carry out his explorations ; 
they asserting that neither for fame nor science, 
nor for any other motive, had a man a right to take 
the life of his fellow-man. Without going into 
an argument on this point, or bringing forward 
the circumstances of this particular case, leaving 
that to be explained in the narrative, as it will ap- 
pear in subsequent pages, we wish simply to say 
that the philanthropy and Christianity, in behalf 
of which the charge is made, is pure Pharisaism. 
Those writers asserted that life should be taken 
only in self-defense. But in their eyes it is right, 
from mere covetousness to seize territory in In- 
dia, and thus provoke the rightful owners to rise 
in defense of their own, which act converts them 
into assailants that must be killed in self-defense. 
But this man having passed through friendly 
territory, suddenly finds himself stopped by hos- 
tile savages, who declare that he must retrace his 
three months' journey and turn back, not because 
they are to be despoiled of their land, or wronged 
in their persons, but from mere savage malicious- 
ness and hate. Mr. Stanley quietly insists on con- 
tinuing his journey, desiring no conflict, but find- 
ing them determined to kill him and break up his 
expedition, he anticipates their movements and 
shoots down some of them, and lo, these writers 
who defend the slaughter of tens of thousands of 
men in India, so that England may enjoy her whole- 
sale robbery, nay, who threaten Europe with bloody 



CRITICISMS ON STANLEY. 



41 



war at the mere hint that others may want to share 
her unjust possessions — these writers call on the 
English people to refuse to give Stanley a public 
reception, because he killed a half-dozen savages 
who wanted to kill him. He should have waited, 
they say, till they fired the first shot ; as he did not 
his conduct should be investigated by the philan- 
thropic subjects of Her Majesty the Queen. 



CHAPTER II. 

DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 

ALL there was of civilization in the world 
was found at one time in Africa. Art and 
science had their home there, while now 
as a whole it is regarded as the most benighted 
and barbarous portion of the earth and is, not 
inaptly, called "the dark continent." With a 
breadth at the equator of four thousand five hun- 
dred miles, with the exception of thin lines of sea- 
coast on each side, this vast space has been as 
much unknown as the surface of a distant planet. 
The Barbary States and Egypt on the Mediter- 
ranean and Red Seas, some Portuguese settle- 
ments on the Indian Ocean, the English and Dutch 
colonies of South Africa, a few trading ports and 
the English and American colonies in Guinea, 
constituted Africa, so far as the knowledge of the 
civilized world went. And yet within these outer 
rims lay real Africa, and there lived its immense 
population. 

The vast Desert of Sahara on the north, stretch- 
ing down to the equator, presented an impenetra- 
ble barrier to explorers entering from that direc- 
tion, while along the eastern and western coasts 
they were beaten back by savage tribes or fell 

(42) 



INACCESSIBILITY OF AFRICA. ** 

victims to the diseases of the country. Matted 
forests, wild beasts and venomous reptiles were 
added to the other obstacles that beset their path, 
so that only now and then an adventurous ex- 
plorer penetrated the continent itself. 

The Nile, piercing to the equator, seemed the 
most natural avenue by which to enter this region, 
but the slave hunters by their cruelty, and the 
petty wars they had engendered among the vari- 
ous tribes, made the presence of a white man in 
their midst the occasion of hostile demonstrations. 
The lofty mountains and broad rivers that came 
out of this vast unknown region added to the mys- 
terious interest that enveloped it. Though certain 
death awaited the daring traveler who endeavored 
to penetrate far into the interior, fresh victims 
were found ready to peril their lives in the effort 
to solve the mystery of Central Africa. The paths 
of these travelers, when traced on the map, ap- 
pears like mere punctures of the great continent. 
Missionary effort could only effect a lodgment 
along the coast, while colonies remained station- 
ary on the spot where they were first planted. 

Although holding the entire southern portion 
the English colony could make but little headway 
against the tribes that confronted them on the 
north. The most adventurous men urged not by 
curiosity or desire of knowledge, but cupidity, 
penetrated the farthest into the interior, but, in- 
stead of throwing light on those dark places, they 



44 , IN T H E WILDS OF AFRICA. 

made them seem more dark and terrible by the 
miserable naked and half-starved wretches they 
brought out to civilization, to become more 
wretched still by the life of slavery to which they 
were doomed. 

Hence it could not be otherwise than that the 
name of white man should be associated with 
everything revolting and cruel, and that his pres- 
ence among these wild barbarians should awaken 
feelings of vengeance. A white man, to those in- 
land tribes, represented wrong and cruelty alone. 
The very word meant separation of wives, and 
husbands, and families, and carrying away to a 
doom whose mystery only enhanced its actual 
horrors. Hence the white man's rapacity and 
cruelty put an effectual bar to his curiosity and 
enterprise. The love of knowledge and physical 
science was thwarted by the love of sin and wrong, 
and the civilized world, instead of wondering at 
the ignorance and barbarity that kept back all 
research and all benevolent effort, should wonder 
that any one bearing the slightest relationship to 
the so-called outside civilized world, should have 
been allowed to exist for a day where these 
wronged, outraged savages bore sway. 

It is not a little singular that the first real en- 
croachment of these forbidden regions was not 
made by daring explorers either for adventure or 
geographical knowledge, or to extend commerce, 
but by a poor missionary, whose sole object was 



EXTENT OF AFRICA. »c 

to get the Gospel introduced among these un- 
counted millions of heathen. Livingstone really 
broke the spell that hung over tropical Africa, and 
set on foot movements that are to work a change 
in the continent more important and momentous 
than the imagination of man can at present con- 
ceive. 

It is the tropical region of Africa that gives 
birth to its largest rivers, is covered by its most 
magnificent forests, is crossed by its loftiest moun- 
tains, and where dwell its teeming millions. And 
this is the unknown part of the continent and the 
central point toward which all explorers press. 

This tropical Africa extends from about ten de- 
grees above to ten degrees below the equator, and 
from ten to thirty-five east longitude, or in round 
numbers, nearly a thousand miles above and be- 
low the equator, to two thousand or more east 
and west between these parallels of latitudes. 
With an ordinary map before him, and with Zan- 
zibar on the east and Congo on the west as great 
landmarks, the reader will get a very clear idea 
of the ground aimed at and touched, or pierced 
and crossed by the more recent explorers, and the 
thorough final explorations of which will unlock 
the hidden mystery of Africa, and open all there 
is of interest to both the Christian and commercial 
world. That to the former there is a field to be 
occupied that will tax the self-sacrifice and be- 
nevolence of the Christian world, there can be no 



4 6 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



doubt; while to the commercial world a field of 
equal magnitude and importance will be laid open. 

From the mere punctures into the borders of 
this unknown land, and the two slight trails re- 
cently made across it, there remains no doubt that 
from sixty to one hundred millions of men are 
here living in the lowest and most degraded con- 
dition of heathenism, while the country is burdened 
with those articles which the commercial world 
needs and can make of vast benefit to man. 

A glance at the map will reveal what a vast ter- 
ritory remains to be explored and what a mighty 
population exists there, yet to come into contact 
with the civilized world. It is probable that that 
unexplored region between the equator and the 
great Desert of Sahara will reveal even greater 
wonders than have yet been discovered. 

It is a little strange that the enterprise and the 
curiosity of man should urge him to make re- 
peated costly and vain attempts to reach the north 
pole, where there are neither inhabitants nor 
articles of commerce, while one of the largest 
continents on our globe, crowded with people and 
rich in the very products most needed by man, 
should be allowed to remain so long a sealed book. 

What little of Africa has been traversed reveals 
untold wealth waiting the enterprising hand of 
commerce to bring it forth to civilization. A par- 
tial list' of the products of this rich country will 
show what a mine of wealth it is destined to be. 



PRODUCTS OF THE LAND. *j 

Sugar-cane, cotton, coffee, oil palm, tobacco, spices, 
timber, rice, wheat, Indian corn, India rubber, copal, 
hemp, ivory, iron, copper, silver, gold and various 
other articles of immense value are found here, 
and some of them in the greatest profusion. 

Thus it will be seen that this vast continent, which 
from creation seemed destined only to be the abode 
of wild beasts and reptiles, and of man as wild and 
savage as the animals amid which he dwelt, and 
who when brought into contact with civilization 
becomes more debased, if possible, by the bondage 
in which he is kept, contains almost everything that 
civilization needs, and in a future which now seems 
near, it will be traversed by railroads and steam- 
boats, and the solitudes that have echoed for thou- 
sands of years to the howl of wild beasts and the 
yells of equally wild men, will resound with the 
hum of peaceful industry and the rush and roar of 
commerce. The miserable hut will give way to 
commodious habitations, and the disgusting rites 
of heathenism to the worship of the true God. 
Reaching to the temperate zones, north and south, 
it presents every variety of climate and yields 
every variety of vegetation. What effect the 
great revolution awaiting this continent will have 
on the destiny of the world, none can tell. He 
would have been considered a mad prophet who 
would have predicted one-half of the changes that 
the discovery of the American continent, less than 
four hundred years ago, has wrought. None can 



4 8 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



doubt that the Creator of these continents had 
some design in letting this one, which constitutes 
nearly a fourth part of our planet, remain in dark- 
ness and mystery and savage debasement so long, 
and now, by the effort of one missionary, cause it 
to be thrown open to the world. 



CHAPTER III. 

Stanley's search for Livingstone. 

WE have seen how suddenly Mr. Stanley 
was called from Spain, to take charge of 
an expedition in search of Livingstone, 
how he was sent to see Baker who was about to 
enter Africa from the north, and how he was first 
sent east. But the time came at last for him to 
enter upon his work in earnest, and he sailed from 
Bombay, on the 12th o October, for Zanzibar. 
On board the barque was a Scotchman, named 
Farquhar, acting as first mate. Taking a fancy to 
him, Stanley engaged him to accompany the expe- 
dition to find Livingstone. 

Nearly three months later, on the 6th of Janu- 
ary, he landed at Zanzibar, one of the most fruitful 
islands of the Indian Ocean, rejoicing in a sultan 
of its own. It is the great mart to which come the 
ivory, gum, copal, hides, etc., and the slaves of the 
interior. Stanley immediately set about preparing 
for his expedition. The first things to decide 
were: How much money is required? How many 
pigeons as carriers? How many soldiers? How 
much cloth? How many beads? How much 
wire? What kinds of cloth is required for the 
different tribes? 

4 (49) 



CO IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

After trying to figure this out from the books 
of other travelers, he decided to consult an Arab 
merchant who had fitted out several caravans for 
the interior. In a very short time he obtained 
more information than he had acquired from books 
in his long three months' voyage from India. 

Money is of no use in the heart of Africa. 
Goods of various kinds are the only coin that can 
purchase what the traveler needs, or pay the tri- 
bute that is exacted by the various tribes. He 
found that forty yards of cloth per day would 
keep one hundred men supplied with food. Thus, 
three thousand six hundred and fifty yards of 
cloth would support one hundred men twelve 
months. Next to cloths, beads were the best cur- 
rency of the interior. Of these he purchased 
twenty sacks of eleven varieties in color and shape. 
Next came the brass wire, of which he purchased 
three hundred and fifty pounds, of about the thick- 
ness of telegraph wire. Next came the provisions 
and outfit of implements that would be needed — 
medicines, arms, donkeys, and last of all, men. 

A man by the name of Shaw, a native of Eng- 
land, who came to Zanzibar as third mate of an 
American ship, from which he was discharged, 
applied for work, and was engaged by Stanley in 
getting what he needed together and to accom- 
pany him on the expedition. He agreed to give 
him three hundred dollars per annum, and placed 
him next in rank to Farquhar. He then cast about 



ZANZIBAR. 




ZANZIBAR. 

The capital of the island of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa. 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE MARCH. 



53 



for an escort of twenty men. Five who had ac- 
companied Speke, and were called "Speke's Faith- 
fuls," among whom, as a leader, was a man named 
Bombay, were first engaged. He soon got to- 
gether eighteen more men as soldiers, who were 
to receive three dollars a month. Each was to 
have a flint-lock musket, and be provided with two 
hundred rounds of ammunition. Bombay was to 
receive eighty dollars a year, and the other " faith- 
fuls" forty dollars. 

Knowing that he was to enter a region of vast 
inland lakes, and that much delay and travel might 
be avoided by the possession of a large boat, he 
purchased one and stripped it of all its covering, 
to make the transportation easier. He also had 
a cart constructed to fit the goat-paths of the in- 
terior and to aid in transportation. 

When all his purchases were completed and 
collected together, he found that the combined 
weight would be about six tons. His cart and 
twenty donkeys would not suffice for this, and so 
the last thing of all, was to procure carriers, or 
pagosi, as they were called. He himself was 
presented with a blooded bay horse by an Ameri- 
can merchant at Zanzibar, named Gordhue, for- 
merly of Salem. 

On the 4th of February, 1871, twenty-eight 
days from his arrival at Zanzibar, Mr. Stanley's 
equipment was completed and he set sail for Ba- 
gomayo, twenty-five miles distant on the mainland, 



54 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



from which all caravans start for the interior, and 
where he was to hire his one hundred and forty or 
more pagosi or carriers. He was immediately 
surrounded with men who attempted in every way 
to fleece him, and he was harassed, and betrayed 
and hindered on every side. But, at length, all 
difficulties were overcome — the goods packed in 
bales weighing seventy- two pounds each — the 
force divided into five caravans, and in six weeks 
after he entered Bagomayo, Stanley himself was 
ready to start. The first caravan had departed 
February 18th; the second, February 21st; the 
third, February 25th; the fourth, on March nth, 
and the last on March 21st. All told, the number 
comprised in all the caravans of the "Herald Ex- 
pedition," was one hundred and ninety. 

It was just seventy-three days after Stanley 
landed at Zanzibar, that he passed out of Bago- 
mayo on his bay horse, with his last caravan, 
accompanied by twenty-eight carriers and twelve 
soldiers, under Bombay, while his Arab boy, Selim, 
the interpreter, had charge of the cart and its load. 

Out through a narrow lane shaded by trees, they 
passed, the American flag flying in front, and all 
in the highest spirits. Stanley had left behind him 
the quarreling, cheating Arabs, and all his troubles 
with them. The sun, speeding to the west, was 
beckoning him on ; his heart beat high with hope 
and ambition; he had taken a new departure in 
life, and with success would come the renown he 



THE START INLAND. r - 

so ardently desired. He says, "loveliness glowed 
around me; I saw fertile fields, rich vegetation, 
strange trees; I heard the cry of cricket and pewit, 
and jubilant sounds of many insects, all of which 
seemed to tell me, 'you are started.' What could 
I do but lift up my face toward the pure, glowing 
sky, and cry, 'God be thanked ?'" 

The first camp was three miles and a half distant. 
The next three days were employed in completing 
the preparations for the long land journey and for 
meeting the rainy season, now very near, and on 
April 4th, a start was made for Unyanyembe, the 
great half-way house, which he resolved to reach in 
three months. 

The road was a mere foot-path, leading through 
fields in which naked women were at work, who 
looked up and laughed and giggled as they passed. 
Passing on, they entered an open forest, abound- 
ing in deer and antelope. Reaching the turbid 
Kingemi, a bridge of felled trees was soon made ; 
Stanley, in the meantime amusing himself with 
shooting hippopotami, or rather shooting at them, 
for his small bullets made no more impression on 
their thick skulls than peas would have done. 
Crossing to the opposite shore, he found the trav- 
eling better. They arrived at Kikoka, a distance 
of but ten miles, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, 
having been compelled to unload the animals 
during the day, to cross the river and mud pools. 
This was slow marching, and at this rate of speed 



56 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



it would take a long time to reach the heart of 
Africa. The settlement was a collection of rude 
huts. Though bound to the same point that Speke 
and Burton had reached, Ujiji, Stanley took a differ- 
ent route from them, and one never traveled by a 
white man before. 

On the 27th, he left this place and moved west- 
ward over a rolling, monotonous country, until they 
came to Rosako, the province of Ukwee. Just 
before his departure the next morning, Magonga, 
the leader of the fourth caravan, came up and told 
him that three of his carriers were sick, and asked 
for some medicine. He found the three men in 
great terror, believing they were about to die, and 
crying out like children, " Mama, mama." Leaving 
them, with orders to hurry on as soon as possible, 
he departed. The country everywhere was in a 
state of nature except in the neighborhood of vil- 
lages. Sheltered by the dense forests, he toiled on 
but was so anxious about the fourth caravan left 
behind that, after marching nine miles he ordered 
a halt and made a camp. It soon swarmed with 
insects, and he set to work to examine them and 
see if they were the tsetse, said to be fatal to horses 
in Africa. Still waiting for the caravan, he went 
hunting, but soon found himself in such an impene- 
trable jungle and swamp, filled with alligators, that 
he resolved never to make the attempt again. 
The second and third days passing without the 
arrival of the caravan, he sent Shaw and Bombay 



WRETCHED SURROUNDINGS. cy 

back after it, who brought it up on the fourth day. 
Leaving it to rest in his own camp, he pushed on 
five miles to the village of Kingaru, set in a deep, 
damp, pestiferous-looking hollow, surrounded by 
pools of water. To add to the gloominess of the 
scene, a pouring rain set in, which soon filled their 
camping-place with lakelets and rivulets of water. 
Toward evening the rain ceased, and the villagers 
began to pour in with their vendibles. Foremost 
was the chief, bringing with him three measures 
of matama and a half a measure of rice, which he 
begged Stanley to accept. The latter saw through 
the trickery of this meagre present, in offering 
which the chief called him the "rich sultan." Stan- 
ley asked him why, if he was a rich sultan, the 
chief of Kingaru did not bring him a rich present, 
that he might give him a rich one in return. "Ah," 
replied the blear-eyed old fox, " Kingaru is poor, 
there is no matama in the village." "Well," said 
Stanley, " if there is no matama in the village, I 
can give but a yard of cloth," which would be 
equivalent to his present. Foiled in his sharp 
practice the chief had to be content with this. 

At this place he lost one of his horses. The 
burial of the carcass not far from the encampment, 
raised a terrible commotion in the village, and the 
inhabitants assembled in consultation as to how 
much they must charge him for burying a horse 
in their village without permission, and soon the 
wrinkled old chief was also at the camp, and the 



58 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



following dialogue took place, which is given as 
an illustration of the character of the people with 
whom he was to have a year's trading inter- 
course : 

White Man — "Are you the great chief of King- 
aru?" 

Kingaru — " Huh-uh — yes." 

W. M.— "The great, great chief?" 

Kingaru — " Huh-uh — yes." 

W. M. — " How many soldiers have you ?" 

Kingaru—" Why ?" 

W. M. — " How many fighting men have you ?" 

Kingaru — " None." 

W. M. — " Oh ! I thought you might have a 
thousand men with you, by your going to fine a 
strong white man who has plenty of guns and 
soldiers two doti for burying a dead horse." 

Kingaru (rather perplexed) — "No; I have no 
soldiers. I have only a few young men." 

W. M. — " Why do you come and make trouble, 
then?" 

Kingaru — " It was not I ; it was my brothers 
who said to me, ' Come here, come here, Kingaru, 
see what the white man has done ! Has he not 
taken possession of your soil, in that he has put 
his horse into your ground without your permis- 
sion ? Come, go to him and see by what right ! ' 
Therefore have I come to ask you who gave you 
permission to use my soil for a burying-ground ?" 

W. M. — " I want no man's permission to do 



DEATH OF THE HORSES. eg 

what is right. My horse died; had I left him to 
fester and stink in your valley, sickness would 
visit your village, your water would become 
unwholesome, and caravans would not stop here 
for trade ; for they would say, 'This is an unlucky 
spot, let us go away.' But enough said ; I under- 
stand you to say you do not want him buried in 
your ground ; the error I have fallen into is easily 
put right. This minute my soldiers shall dig him 
out again and cover up the soil as it was before, 
and the horse shall be left where he died." (Then 
shouting to Bombay). "Ho, Bombay, take sol- 
diers with jeinbes to dig my horse out of the 
ground; drag him to where he died and make 
everything ready for a march to-morrow morn- 
ing." 

Kingaru, his voice considerably higher and his 
head moving to and fro with emotion, cries out, 
" Akuna, akuna, Bana " — no, no, master. "Let not 
the white man get angry. The horse is dead and 
now lies buried ; let him remain so, since he is 
already there, and let us be friends again." 

The matter had hardly been settled, when Stan- 
ley heard deep groans issuing from one of the 
animals. On inquiry, he found that they came 
from the bay horse. He took a lantern and 
visited him, staying all night and working to save 
his life. It was in vain — in the morning he died, 
leaving him now without any horse, which reduced 
him to donkey riding. Three days passed, and 



5q IN T H E WILDS OF AFRICA. 

the lagging caravan had not come up. In the 
meantime, one of his carriers deserted, while sick- 
ness attacked the camp, and out of his twenty-five 
men, ten were soon on the sick list. On the 4th, 
the caravan came up, and on the following morn- 
ing was dispatched forward, the leader being 
spurred on with the promise of a liberal reward 
if he hurried to Unyanyembe. The next morning, 
to rouse his people, he beat an alarm on a tin pan, 
and before sunrise they were on the march, the 
villagers rushing like wolves into the deserted 
camp to pick up any rags or refuse left behind. 
The march of fifteen miles to Imbike showed a 
great demoralization in his men, many of them 
not coming up till nightfall. One of the carriers 
had deserted on the way, taking with him a quan- 
tity of cloth and beads. The next morning, before 
starting, men were sent in pursuit of him. They 
made that day, the 8th, but ten miles to Msuwa. 
Though the journey was short, it was the most 
fatiguing one of all. As it gives a vivid descrip- 
tion of the difficulties experienced in traveling 
through this country, we quote Stanley's own 
lan^ua^e : 

" It was one continuous jungle, except three in- 
terjacent glades of narrow limits, which gave us 
three breathing pauses in the dire task of jungle- 
traveling. The odor emitted from its fell plants 
was so rank, so pungently acrid, and the miasma 
from its decayed vegetation so dense, that I ex- 



JUNGLE TRAVEL. £j 

pected every moment to see myself and men fall 
down in paroxysms of acute fever. Happily this 
evil was not added to that of loading and unload- 
ing the frequently falling packs. Seven soldiers 
to attend seventeen laden donkeys, were entirely 
too small a number while passing through a 
jungle ; for while the path is but a foot wide, with 
a wall of thorny plants and creepers bristling on 
each side, and projecting branches darting across 
it, with knots of spiky twigs, stiff as spike-nails, 
ready to catch and hold anything above four feet 
in height, it is but reasonable to suppose that 
donkeys, standing four feet high, with loads 
measuring across, from bale to bale, four feet, 
would come to grief. 

"This grief was of frequent recurrence here, 
causing us to pause every few minutes for re-ar- 
rangements. So often had this task to be per- 
formed, that the men got perfectly discouraged, 
and had to be spoken to sharply before they 
would set to work. By the time I reached Msuwa, 
there was nobody with me and the ten donkeys I 
drove but Mabruk, who perseveringly, though gen- 
erally stolid, stood to his work like a man. Bom- 
bay and Uledi were far behind with the most jaded 
donkeys. Shaw was in charge of the cart, and 
his experiences were most bitter, as he informed 
me he had expended the whole vocabulary of 
stormy abuse known to sailors, and a new one 
which he had invented ex tempore. He did not 



5 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

arrive until two o'clock next morning, and was com- 
pletely worn out. Truly, I doubt if the most 
pious divine, in traveling through that long jungle, 
under those circumstances, with such oft-recur- 
ring annoyances, Sisyphean labor, could have 
avoided cursing his folly for coming hither." 

A halt was made here, that men and animals 
might recuperate. The chief of this village was 
"a white man in everything but color," and brought 
him the choicest mutton. He and his subjects 
were intelligent enough to comprehend the utility 
of his breech-loading guns, and by their gestures 
illustrated their comprehension of the deadly ef- 
fects of those weapons in battle. 

On the ioth, somewhat recuperated, the caravan 
left this hospitable village and crossed a beautiful 
little plain, with a few cultivated fields, from which 
the tillers stared in wonder at the unwonted 
spectacle it presented. But here Stanley met one 
of those sights common in that part of the world, 
but which, it is to be hoped, will soon be seen no 
more. It was a chained slave-gang, bound east. 
He says the slaves did not appear to be in the 
least down-hearted, on the contrary, they were 
jolly and gay. But for the chains, there was no 
difference between master and slave. The chains 
were heavy, but as men and women had nothing 
else to carry, being entirely naked, their weight, 
he says, could not have been insupportable. 
He camped at 10 a. m., and fired two guns, to 



THE BELLES OF KISEMO. 



63 



show they were ready to trade with any of the 
natives in the region. The halting-place was 
Kisemo, only twelve miles from Msuwa which was 
the centre of a populous district, there being no 
less than five villages in the vicinity fortified by 
stakes and thorny abattis, as formidable, in their 
way, as the old fosse and draw-bridge of feudal 
times. "The belles of Kisemo," he says, "are of 
gigantic posterioral proportions," and are "noted 
for their variety in brass wire, which is wound in 
spiral rings round their wrists and ankles, and for 
the varieties of style which their wisped heads 
exhibit; while their poor lords, obliged to be con- 
tented with dingy, torn clouts and split ears, show 
what wide sway Asmodeus holds over this ter- 
restrial sphere — for it must have been an unhappy 
time when the hard besieged husbands gave way 
before their hotly-pressing spouses. Besides these 
brassy ornaments on their extremities, the women 
of Kisemo frequently wear lengthy necklaces, 
which run in rivers of colors .down their black 
bodies." But a more comical picture is seldom 
presented than that of one of those highly-dressed 
females, "with their huge posterior development, 
while grinding out corn. This is done in a 
machine very much like an old-fashioned churn, 
except the dasher becomes a pestle and the churn 
a mortar. Swaying with the pestle, as it rises and 
falls, the breast and posteriors correspond to the 
strokes of the dasher in a droll sort of sing-song, 



6 4 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



which eave to the whole exhibition the drollest 
effect imaginable." 

A curious superstition of the natives was brought 
to light here by Shaw removing a stone while put- 
ting up his tent. As he did so, the chief rushed 
forward, and putting it back in its place, solemnly 
stood upon it. On being asked what was the 
matter, he carefully lifted it, pointed to an insect 
pinned by a stick to the ground, which he said had 
been the cause of a miscarriage cf a female of the 
village. 

In the afternoon the messengers came back with 
the deserter and all the stolen goods. Some of 
the natives had captured him and were about to 
kill him and take the goods, when the messengers 
came up and claimed both. He was given up, his 
captors being content with receiving a little cloth 
and a few beads in return. Stanley^ with great 
sagacity, caused the thief to be tried by the other 
carriers, who condemned him to be flogged. They 
were ordered to carry out their own sentence, 
which they did amid the yells of the culprit. 

Before night a caravan arrived, bringing, among 
other things,' a copy of the Herald, containing an 
account of a Presidential levee in Washington, in 
which the toilette of the various ladies were given. 
While engrossed in reading in his tent, Stanley 
suddenly became aware that his tent-door was 
darkened, and looking up, he saw the chief's 
daughters gazing with wondering eyes on the 



NEWS OF LIVINGSTONE. 



65 



great sheets of paper he was scanning so closely. 
The sight of these naked beauties, glittering in 
brass wire and beads, presented a ludicrous con- 
trast to the elaborately-dressed belles of whom he 
had been reading in the paper, and made him 
feel, by contrast, in what a different world he was 
living. 

On the 1 2th, the caravan reached Munondi, on 
the Ungerangeri River. The country was open 
and beautiful, presenting a natural park, while the 
roads were good, making the day's journey de- 
lightful. Flowers decked the ground, and the 
perfume of sweet-smelling shrubs filled the air. 
As they approached the river, they came upon 
fields of Indian corn and gardens filled with vege- 
tables, while stately trees lined the bank. On the 
14th, they crossed the river and entered the 
Wakami territory. This day and the next the 
road lay through a charming country. The day 
following, they marched through a forest between 
two mountains rising on either side of them, and 
on the 1 6th reached the territory of Wosigahha. 
As he approached the village of Muhalleh he was 
greeted with the discharge of musketry. It came 
from the fourth caravan, which had halted here. 
Here also good news awaited him. An Arab 
chief, with a caravan bound east, was in the place, 
and told him that he had met Livingstone at Ujiji, 
and had lived in the next hut to him for two weeks. 
He described him as looking old, with long, gray 
5 



66 W THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

mustache and beard, just recovered from illness, 
and looking very wan. He said, moreover, that 
he was fully recovered, and was going to visit a 
country called Monyima. This was cheering news, 
indeed, and filled Stanley's heart with joy and 
hope. The valley here, with its rich crops of In- 
dian corn, was more like some parts of the fertile 
west than a desert country. But the character 
of the natives began to change. They became 
more insolent and brutal, and accompanied their 
requests with threats. 

Continuing their journey along the valley of the 
river, they suddenly, to their astonishment, came 
upon a walled town containing a thousand houses. 
It rose before them like an apparition with its gates 
and towers of stone and double row of loop-holes 
for musketry. The fame of Stanley had preceded 
him, being carried by the caravans he had dis- 
patched ahead, and a thousand or more of the 
inhabitants came out to see him. This fortified 
town was established by an adventurer famous for 
his kidnapping propensities. A barbaric orator, a 
man of powerful strength and of cunning address, 
he naturally acquired an ascendency over the rude 
tribes of the region, and built him a capital, and 
fortified it and became a self-appointed sultan. 
Growing old, he changed his name, which had been 
a terror to the surrounding tribes, and also the 
name of his capital, and just before death, be- 
queathed his power to his eldest daughter, and in 



AFRICAN FE VER. 



67 



her honor named the town Sultana, which name 
it still bears. The women and children hung on 
the rear of Stanley's caravan, filled with strange 
curiosity at sight of this first white man they had 
ever seen, but the scorching sun drove them back 
one by one, and when Stanley pitched his camp, 
four miles farther on, he was unattended. He 
determined to halt here- for two days to overhaul 
his baggage and give the donkeys, whose backs 
had become sore, time to recuperate. On the 
second day, he was attacked with the African fever, 
similar to the chills and fever of the west and south- 
west. He at once applied the remedies used in 
the Western States, using powerful doses of qui- 
nine, and in three days he pronounced himself 
well again. 



CHAPTER IV. 

WILD EXPERIENCES. 

STANLEY had now traveled one hundred 
and nineteen miles in fourteen marches, 
occupying one entire month lacking one 
day, and making, on an average, four miles a day. 
This was slow work. The rainy season now set 
in, and day after day it was a regular down-pour. 
Stanley was compelled to halt, while disgusting 
insects, beetles, bugs, wasps, centipedes, worms 
and almost every form of the lower animal life, 
took possession of his tent, and gave him the first 
real taste of African life. 

On the morning of the 23d of April, he says the 
rain held up for a short time and he prepared to 
cross the river, now swollen and turbid. The 
bridge over which he carried his baesrasfe was of 
the most primitive kind, while the donkeys had to 
swim. The passage occupied five hours, yet it 
was" happily accomplished without any casualties. 
Reloading his baggage and wringing out his 
clothes, he set out again, leaving the river and fol- 
lowing a path that led off in a northerly direction. 

With his heart light and cheerful by being once 
more on the march and out of the damp and hate- 
ful valley, which was made still more hateful by 

(68) 



SLOW MARCHING. 



6 9 



the disgusting insect life that filled his tent, he 
ascended to higher ground, and passed with his 
caravan through successive glades, which opened 
one after another between forest clumps of trees 
hemmed in distantly by isolated peaks and scat- 
tered mountains. "Now and then," he says, "as 
we crested low eminences, we caught sight of the 
blue Usagara Mountains, bounding the horizon 
westerly and northerly, and looked down on a 
vast expanse of plain which lay between. At the 
foot of the lengthy slope, well watered by bubbling 
springs and mountain rills, we found a comfortable 
Khembi with well-made huts, which the natives 
call Simbo. It lies just two hours, or five miles, 
northwest from the Ungerengeri crossing." 

We here get incidentally the rapidity with 
which he traveled, where the face of the country 
and the roads gave him the greatest facilities for 
quick marching, two "hours or five miles," he 
says, which makes his best time two and a half 
miles an hour. In this open, beautiful country no 
villages or settlements could be seen, though he 
was told there were many in the mountain in- 
cisures, the inhabitants of which were false, dis- 
honest and murderous. 

On the morning of the 24th, as they were about 
to leave, Simbo, his Arab cook, was caught for the 
fifth time pilfering, and it being proved against 
him, Stanley ordered a dozen lashes to be inflicted 
on him as a punishment, and Shaw was ordered 



7o 



IN THE WILBS OF AFRICA. 



to administer them. The blows being given 
through his clothes, did not hurt him much, but 
the stern decree that he, with his donkey and 
baggage, should be expelled from camp and turned 
adrift in the forests of Africa, drove him wild, and 
leaving donkey 'and everything else, he rushed 
out of camp and started for the mountains. Stan- 
ley, wishing only to frighten him, and having no 
idea of leaving the poor fellow to perish at the 
hands of the natives, sent a couple of his men to 
recall him. But it was of no use; the poor, 
frightened wretch kept on for the mountains, and 
was soon out of sight altogether. Believing he 
would think better of it and return, his donkey 
was tied to a tree near the camping-ground, and 
the caravan started forward and having passed 
through the Makata Valley, which afterward be- 
came of sorrowful memory, it halted at Rehen- 
neko at the base of the Usagara Mountains. 

This valley is a wilderness covered with bam- 
boo, and palm, and other trees, with but one vil- 
lage on its broad expanse, through which the hart- 
beest, the antelope and the zebra roam. In the 
lower portions, the mud was so deep that it took 
ten hours to go ten miles, and the company was 
compelled to encamp in the woods when but half- 
way across. Bombay with the cart did not get in 
till near midnight, and he brought the dolorous 
tale that he had lost the property-tent, an axe, be- 
sides coats, shirts, beads, cloth, pistol and hatchet 



IRREPARABLE LOSSES. 



71 



arid powder. He said he had left them a little 
while that he might help lift the cart out of a mud- 
hole and during his 4 absence they disappeared. 
This told to Stanley at midnight roused all his 
wrath, and he poured a perfect storm of abuse on 
the cringing Arab, and he took occasion to over- 
haul his conduct from the start. The cloth if ever 
found, he said, would be spoiled, the axe, which 
would be needed at Ujiji to construct a boat, was 
an irreparable loss, to say nothing of the pistol, 
powder and hatchet, and worse than all, he had 
not brought back the cook, whom he knew there 
was no intention to abandon, and Stanley then 
and there told him he would degrade him from 
office and put another man in his place, and then 
dismissed him, with orders to return at daylight 
and find the missing property. Four more were 
now dispatched after the missing cook, and Stan- 
ley halted three days to wait the return of his 
men. In the meantime, provisions ran low, and 
though there was plenty of game, it was so wild 
that but little could be obtained, he being able to 
secure but two potfuls in two days' shooting, but 
these were quail, grouse and pigeons. On the 
fourth day, becoming exceedingly anxious, he dis- 
patched Shaw and two more soldiers after the 
missing men. Toward night he returned, sick 
with ague, bringing the soldiers with him, but not 
the missing cook. The soldiers reported that 
they had marched immediately back to Simbo 



72 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



and having searched in vain in the vicinity for the 
missing man, they went to the bridge over the 
river to inquire there. They were told, so they 
said, that a white donkey had crossed the river in 
another place driven by some Washensi. Believ- 
ing the cook had been murdered by those men 
who were making off with his property, they 
hastened to the walled town and told the war- 
riors of the western gate that two Washensi, who 
had murdered a man belonging to the white man, 
must have passed the place, with a white donkey. 
They were immediately conducted to the sultana, 
who had much "of the spirit of her father, to whom 
they told their story. Of the results, Stanley 
says: 

" The sultana demanded of the watchmen of the 
towers if they had seen the two Washensi with the 
white donkey The watchmen answered in the 
affirmative, upon which she at once dispatched 
twenty of her musketeers in pursuit to Muhalleh. 
These returned before night, bringing with them 
the two Washensi and the donkey, with the cook's 
entire kit. The sultana, who is evidently pos- 
sessed of her father's energy, with all his lust for 
wealth, had my messengers, the two Washensi, 
the cook's donkey and property at once brought 
before her. The two Washensi were questioned 
as to how they became possessed of the donkey 
and such a store of Kisunga clothes, cloth and 
beads ; to which they answered that they had 



THE SULTANA'S JUDGMENT 



73 



found the donkey tied to a tree with the property 
on the ground close to it ; that seeing no owner 
or claimant anywhere in the neighborhood, they 
thought they had a right to it, and accordingly had 
taken it with them. My soldiers were then asked 
if they recognized the donkey and property, to 
which questions they unhesitatingly made answer 
that they did. They further informed Her High- 
ness that they were not only sent after the donkey, 
but also after the owner, who had deserted their 
master's service ; that they would like to know 
from the Washensi what they had done with him. 
Her Highness was also anxious to know what the 
Washensi had done with the Hindi, and accord- 
ingly, in order to elicit the fact, she charged them 
with murdering him, and informed them she but 
wished to know what they had done with the 
body. 

"The Washensi declared most earnestly that 
they had spoken the truth, that they had never 
seen any such man as described ; and if the sul- 
tana desired, they would swear to such a state- 
ment. Her Highness did not wish them to swear 
to what in her heart she believed to be a lie, but 
she would chain them and send them in charge of 
a caravan to Zanzibar to Lyed Burghosh, who 
would know what to do with them. Then turn- 
ing to my soldiers, she demanded to know why 
the Musungu had not paid the tribute for which 
she had sent her chiefs. The soldiers could not 



74 . IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

answer, knowing nothing of such concerns of their 
master's. The heiress of Kisabengo, true to the 
character of her robber sire, then informed my 
trembling men that, as the Musungu had not paid 
the tribute, she would now take it; their guns 
should be taken from them, together with that of 
the cook ; the cloth and beads found on the 
donkey she would also take, the Hindi's personal 
clothes her chiefs should retain, while they them- 
selves should be chained until the Musungu him- 
self should return and take them by force. 

" And as she threatened, so was it done. For 
sixteen hours my soldiers were in chains in the 
market-place, exposed to the taunts of the servile 
populace. It chanced the next day, however, that 
Sheikh Thani, whom I met at Kingaru, and had 
since passed by five days, had arrived at Limbam- 
wanni, and proceeding to the town to purchase 
provisions for the crossing of the Makata wilder- 
ness, saw my men in chains and at once recog- 
nized them as being in my employ. After hearing 
their story, the good-hearted sheikh sought the 
presence of the sultana, and informed her that she 
was doing very wrong — a wrong that could only 
terminate in blood. 'The Musungu is strong,' he 
said, ' very strong. He has got ten guns which 
shoot forty times without stopping, carrying bul- 
lets half an hour's distance ; he has got several 
guns which carry bullets that burst and tear a man 
in pieces. He could go to the top of that moun- 



DELIVERANCE FR OM DIFFICUL TIES. y r 

tain and kill every man, woman and child in the 
town before one of your soldiers could reach the 
top. The road will then be stopped, Lyed Bur- 
ghosh will march against your country, the Wadoe 
and Wakami will come and take revenge on what 
is left; and the place that your father made so 
strong- w m know the Waseguhha no more. Set 
free the Musungu's soldiers ; give them their food 
and grain for the Musungu ; return the guns to 
the men and let them go, for the white man may 
even now be on his way here/ 

" The exaggerated report of my power, and the 
dread picture sketched by the Arab sheikh, pro- 
duced good effect, inasmuch as Kingaru and the 
Mabrukis were at once released from durance, 
furnished with food sufficient to last our caravan 
four days, and one gun with its accoutrements and 
stock of bullets and powder, was returned, as well 
as the cook's donkey, with a pair of spectacles, a 
book in Malabar print and an old hat which be- 
longed to one whom we all now believed to be 
dead. The sheikh took charge of the soldiers as 
far as Simbo ; and it was in his camp, partaking 
largely of rice and ghee, that Shaw found them, 
and the same bountiful hospitality was extended 
to him and his companions." 

Stanley was now filled with keen regrets for the 
manner in which he had punished the cook, and 
mentally he resolved that no matter what a mem- 
ber of his caravan should do in the future he 



7 6 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



would never drive him out of camp to perish by- 
assassins. Still he would not yet believe that the 
man was murdered. But he was furious at the 
treatment of his soldiers by the black Amazon of 
Limbamwanni, and the tribute she exacted, espe- 
cially at the seizure of the guns, and if he had been 
near the place would have made reprisals. But 
he had already lost four days, and so, next morn- 
ing, although the rain was coming down in tor- 
rents, he broke camp and set forth. Shaw was 
still sick, and so the whole duty of driving the 
floundering caravan devolved upon himself. As 
fast as one was flogged out of the mire in which 
he had stuck, another would fall in. It took two 
hours to cross the miry plain, though it was but a 
mile and a half wide. He was congratulating him- 
self on having at last got over it, when he was 
confronted by a ditch which the heavy rains had 
converted into a stream breast deep. The don- 
keys had all to be unloaded, and led through the 
torrent, and loaded again on the farther side. 
They had hardly got under way when they came 
upon another stream, so deep that it could not be 
forded, over which they had to swim, and float 
across their baggage. They then floundered on 
until they came to a bend of the river, where they 
pitched their camp, having made but six miles the 
whole day. This River Makata is only about 
forty feet in width in the dry season, but at this 
time it was a wide, turbid stream. Its shores, with 



IN A PITIABLE PLIGHT. ** 

its matted grass, decayed vegetable matter and 
reeking mists, seemed the very home of the ague 
and fever. It took five hours to cross it the next 
mornine. The rain then came down in such tor- 
rents that traveling became impossible, and the 
camp was pitched. Luckily this proved the last 
day of the rainy season. 

It was now the i st of May, and the expedition 
was in a pitiable plight. Shaw was still sick, and 
one man was down with the small-pox. Bombay, 
too, was sick, and others complaining. Doctoring 
the sick as well as he knew how, and laying the 
whip lustily on the backs of those who were sham- 
ming, Stanley at length got his caravan in motion 
and began to cross the Makata plain, now a swamp 
thirty-five miles broad. It was plash, plash, through 
the water in some places three or four feet deep, 
for two days, until they came in sight of the Rudewa 
River. Crossing a branch of this stream, a sheet 
of water five miles broad stretched out before the 
tired caravan. The men declared it could not be 
crossed, but Stanley determined to try, and after 
five hours of the most prostrating effort they 
reached dry ground. The animals, however, be- 
gan to sicken from this day on, while Stanley him- 
self was seized with dysentery caused by his ex- 
posure, and was brought to the verge of the 
grave. The expedition seemed about to end there 
on the borders of the Makata swamp. 

On the 4th, they came to the important village 



78 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



of Rehenneko, the first near which they had en- 
camped since entering the district of Usagara. 
It was a square, compact village, of about one 
thousand inhabitants, surrounded by a mud wall 
and composed of cane-topped huts, which the 
natives moved from place to place at pleasure. 
The peculiar ceremonies of the queen's court were 
very interesting to witness. They rested here 
four days to recruit. On the 8th, they started for- 
ward and began to ascend the mountain. Having 
reached the summit of the first range of hills, 
Stanley paused to survey the enchanting prospect. 
The broad valley of Makata stretched out before 
him, laced with streams sparkling in the sun, while 
over it waved countless palm-trees, and far away, 
blue in the distance, stretched a mighty range of 
mountains. "Turnirfg our faces west," he says, 
"we found ourselves in a mountain world, fold 
rising above fold, peak behind peak, cone jostling 
cone; away to the north, to the west, to the south, 
the mountain tops rolled away like so many vitri- 
fied waves, not one adust or arid spot was visible 
in all this scene." 

The change from the pestilential swamps, 
through which they had been so long floundering, 
was most grateful, but the animals suffered greatly, 
and before they reached their first camping-ground, 
two had given out. The 9th, they descended into 
the valley of Mukondokno, and there- struck the 
road traversed by Speke and Burton in 181 7. 



THE QUEEN'S COURT. 



79 




CEREMONIES OF THE QUEEN'S COURT. 
As witnessed in the village of Rehenneko, in the district of Usagara, 



NEW BURDENS. gj 

Reaching the dirty village, Kiora, Stanley found 
there his third caravan, led by Farquhar. By his 
debaucheries on the way he had made himself sick 
and brought his caravan into a sad condition. As 
he heard Stanley's voice, he came staggering out 
of his tent, a bloated mass of human flesh that 
never would have been recognized as the trim 
mate of the vessel that brought Stanley from India. 
After he examined him as to the cause of his ill- 
ness, he questioned him about the condition of the 
property intrusted to his care. Not able to get 
an intelligent answer out of him, he resolved to 
overhaul the baggage. On examination, he found 
that he had spent enough for provisions on which 
to gormandize to have lasted eight months, and 
yet he had been on the route but two and a half 
months. If Stanley had not overtaken him, every- 
thing would have been squandered, and of all the 
bales of cloth he was to take to Unyanyembe not 
one bale would have been left. Stanley was sorely 
puzzled what to do with the miserable man. He 
would die if left at Kiora ; he could not walk or 
ride far, and to carry him seemed well-nigh im- 
possible. 

On the nth, however, the two caravans started 
forward, leaving Shaw to follow with one of the 
men. But he lagged behind, and had not reached 
the camp when it was roused next morning. Stan- 
ley at once dispatched two donkeys, one for the 
load that was on the cart and the other for Shaw, 
6 



82 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



and with the messenger the following note : " You 
will, upon the receipt of this order, pitch the cart 
into the nearest ravine, gully or river, as well as all 
the extra pack saddles ; and come at once, for 
Gods sake, for we must not starve here." After 
waiting four hours, he went back himself and met 
them, the carrier with the cart on his head, and 
Shaw on the donkey, apparently ready, at the 
least jolt, to tumble off. They, however, pushed 
on, and arrived at Madete at four o'clock. Cross- 
ing the river about three, and keeping on, they, on 
the 14th, from the top of a hill caught sight of 
Lake Ugenlo. The outline of it, he says, resem- 
bles England without Wales. It is some three 
miles long by two wide, and is the abode of great 
numbers of hippopotami, while the buffalo, zebra, 
boar and antelope come here by night to quench 
their thirst. Its bosom is covered with wild fowl 
of every description. Being obliged to halt here 
two days on account of the desertion of the cooper, 
with one of the carbines, Stanley explored the 
lake, and tried several shots at the lumbering hip- 
popotami without effect. 

The deserter having returned of his own free 
will, the caravan started forward, cursed by the 
slow progress of the peevish, profane and violent 
Shaw. The next day at breakfast, a scene oc- 
curred that threatened serious consequences. 
When Shaw and Farquhar took their places, Stan- 
ley saw by their looks that something was wrong. 



HIPPOPOTAMI. 



83 




INCIPIENT MUTINY. 



85 



The breakfast was a roast quarter of goat, stewed 
liver, some sweet potatoes, pancakes and coffee. 
"Shaw," said Stanley, "please carve and serve 
Farquhar." Instead of doing so, he exclaimed, in 
an insulting tone, "What dog's meat is this?" 
"What do you mean ?" demanded Stanley. "I 
mean," replied the fellow, "that it is a downright 
shame the way you treat us/' and then he com- 
plained of being compelled to walk and help him- 
self, instead of having servants to wait upon him 
as he was promised. All this was said in a loud, 
defiant tone, interlarded with frequent oaths and 
curses of the "damned expedition," etc. When 
he had got through, Stanley, fixing his black, reso- 
lute eye on him, said: "Listen to me, Shaw, and 
you, Farquhar, ever since you left the coast have 
had donkeys to ride. You have had servants to 
wait upon you; your tents have been set up for 
you; your meals have been cooked for you; you 
have eaten with me of the same food I have eaten ; 
you have received the same treatment I have re- 
ceived. But now all Farquhar's donkeys are 
dead; seven of my own have died, and I have had 
to throw away a few things, in order to procure 
carriage for the most important goods. Farquhar 
is too sick to walk, he must have a donkey to 
ride; in* a few days all our animals will be dead, 
after which I must have over twenty more pagosi 
to take up the goods or wait weeks and weeks 
for carriage. Yet, in the face of these things, 



86 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



you can grumble, and curse, and swear at me at 
my own table. Have you considered well your 
position? Do you realize where you are? Do 
you know that you are my servant, sir, not my 
companion ?" 

"Servant, be " said he. 

Just before Mr. Shaw could finish his sentence 
he had measured his length on the ground. 

"Is it necessary for me to proceed further to 
teach you ?" said Stanley. 

"I tell you what it is, sir," he said, raising him- 
self up, "I think I had better go back. I have 
had enough, and I do not mean to go any farther 
with you. I ask my discharge from you." 

"Oh, certainly. What — who is there?* Bom- 
bay, come here." 

After Bombay's appearance at the tent-door, 
Stanley said to him: "Strike this man's tent," 
pointing to Shaw; "he wants to go back. Bring 
his gun and pistol here to my tent, and take this 
man and his baggage two hundred yards outside 
of the camp, and there leave him." 

In a few minutes his tent was down, his gun and 
pistol in Stanley's tent, and Bombay returned to 
make his report, with four men under arms. 

" Now go, sir. You are at perfect liberty to go. 
These men will escort you outside of camp, and 
there leave you and your baggage." 

He walked out, the men escorting him and car- 
rying his baggage for him. 



FORGIVENESS. 



■87 



After breakfast, Stanley explained to Farquhar 
how necessary it was to be able to proceed ; that 
he had had plenty of trouble, without having to 
think of men who were employed. to think of him 
and their duties; that, as he (Farquhar) was sick, 
and would be probably unable to march for a time, 
it would be better to leave him in some quiet place, 
under the care of a good chief, who would, for a 
consideration, look after him until he got well. To 
all of which Farquhar agreed. 

Stanley had barely finished speaking before 
Bombay came to the tent-door, saying: "Shaw 
would like to speak to you." 

Stanley went out to the door of the camp, and 
there met Shaw, looking extremely penitent and 
ashamed. He commenced to ask pardon, and 
began imploring to be taken back, and promising 
that occasion to find fault with him again should 
never arise. 

Stanley held out his hand, saying : " Don't 
mention it, my dear fellow. Quarrels occur in the 
best of families. Since you apologize, there is an 
end of it." 

That night, as Stanley was about falling asleep, 
he heard a shot, and a bullet tore through the tent 
a few inches above his body. He snatched his 
revolver and rushed out from the tent, and asked 
the men around the watch-fires, "Who shot?" 
They had all jumped up, rather startled by the 
sudden report. 



gg IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

" Who fired that gun ?" 

One said the " Bana Mdogo " — little master. 

. Stanley lit a candle and walked with it to Shaw's 
tent. 

"Shaw, did you fire?" 

There was no answer. He seemed to be asleep, 
he was breathing so hard. 

" Shaw ! Shaw ! did you fire that shot ?" 

"Eh — eh?" said he, suddenly awakening; "me? 
— me fire ? I have been asleep." 

Stanley's eye caught sight of his gun lying near 
him. He seized it — felt it — put his little finger 
down the barrel. The gun was warm ; his finger 
was black from the burnt gunpowder. 

" What is this ?" he asked, holding his finger 
up ; " the gun is warm ; the men tell me you 
fired." 

"Ah — yes," he replied, " I remember it. I 
dreamed I saw a thief pass my door, and I fired. 
Ah — yes — I forgot, I did fire. Why, what's the 
matter ?" 

" Oh, nothing," said Stanley. " But I would 
advise you, in future, in order to avoid all sus- 
picion, not to fire into my tent ; or, at least, so 
near me. I might get hurt, you know, in which 
case ugly reports would get about, and that, per- 
haps, would be disagreeable, as you are probably 
aware. Good-night." 

All had their thoughts about this matter, but 
Stanley never uttered a word about it to any one 



MURDER OUS A TTEMP T. g g 

until he met Livingstone. The doctor embodied 
his suspicions in the words : " He intended mur- 
der!" 

Mr. Livingstone was evidently right in his con- 
jecture, and Mr. Stanley wrong about the intent 
of Shaw. In the first place, the coincidence in 
time between the punishment inflicted on Shaw 
and this extraordinary shot, in which the ball took 
the still more extraordinary direction of going 
through Stanley's tent, that is, to say the least, 
very difficult to explain. In the second place, his 
drowsy condition when questioned, and finally 
remembering so much as that he dreamed a thief 
was passing his door, is more than suspicious. 
The fact that, as Mr. Stanley says, he could have had 
much better opportunities of killing him than this, 
we regard of very little weight. Opportunities 
that are absolutely certain of success without sus- 
picion or detection, are not so common as many 
suppose. Besides, an opportunity so good that 
the would-be murderer could desire nothing bet- 
ter might occur, and yet the shot or stab not prove 
fatal. In this case it doubtless never occurred to 
this man that any one would run his finger down 
his gun-barrel to see if it was hot from a recent 
discharge, while no man could tell, in the middle 
of the night, who fired the shot. It is true, that 
the wretch knew that the chances were against 
such a random fire proving fatal, but he knew it 
was better to take them than the almost cer- 



g IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

tain discovery if he adopted any other method. 
If, for instance, he had in a lonely place fired at 
Stanley and the shot had not proved mortal, or if 
mortal, not immediately so, he well knew what 
would have been his fate, in the heart of Africa, 
where justice is administered without the form of 
law. 

On the 1 6th of May the little caravan started 
off again, and after a march of fifteen miles, 
camped at Matamombo, in a region where monk- 
eys, rhinoceros, steinboks and antelopes abounded. 
The next day's march extended fifteen miles, and 
was through an almost impenetrable jungle. Here 
he came upon the old Arab sheikh, Thani, who 
gave him the following good advice : " Stop here 
two or three days, give your tired animals some 
rest, and collect all the carriers you can ; fill your 
insides with fresh milk, sweet potatoes, beef, mut- 
ton, ghee, honey, beans, matama, madeira nuts, 
and then, Inshalla! we shall go through Ugogo 
without stopping anywhere." Stanley was sensi- 
ble enough to take this advice. He at once com- 
menced on this certainly very prodigal bill of fare 
for Central Africa. How it agreed with him after 
the short trial of a single day, may be inferred from 
the following entry in his diary : 

" Thank God ! after fifty-seven days of living 
upon matama porridge and tough goat, I have 
enjoyed with unctuous satisfaction a real breakfast 
and a good dinner." 



A MAN LEFT BEHIND. QI 

Here upon the Mpwapwa, he found a place to 
leave the Scotchman, Farquhar, until he should be 
strong enough to join him at Unyanyembe. But 
when he proposed this to the friendly chief, he 
would consent only on the condition that he would 
leave one of his own men behind to take care of 
him. This complicated matters, not only because 
he could not well spare a man, but because it 
would be difficult to find one who would consent 
to undertake this difficult task. This man, whom 
Stanley had thought would be a reliable friend 
and a good companion in his long, desolate 
marches, had turned out a burden and a nuisance. 
His wants were almost endless, and instead of 
using the few words in the language of the natives 
to make them known, he would use nothing- but 
the strongest Anglo-Saxon, and when he found 
he was not understood, would fall to cursing- in 
equally good round English oaths, and if the 
astonished natives did not understand this, relapse 
into regular John Bull sullenness. When, there- 
fore, Stanley opened up the subject to Bombay, 
the latter was horrified. He said the men had 
made a contract to go through, not to stop by the 
way; and when Stanley, in despair, turned to the 
men, they one and all refused absolutely to remain 
behind with the cursing, unreasonable white man, 
one of them mimicking his absurd conduct so com- 
pletely, that Stanley himself could not help laugh- 
ing. But the man must be left behind, and some- 



Q2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

body must take care of him ; and so Stanley had 
to use his authority, and notwithstanding all his 
protestations and entreaties, Sako, the only one 
who could speak English, was ordered to stay. 

Having engaged twelve new carriers, and from 
the nearest mountain summit obtained an entranc- 
ing view of the surrounding region for a hundred 
miles, he prepared to start, but not before, not- 
withstanding the good milk it furnished, giving 
Mpwapwa a thorough malediction for its earwigs. 
"In my tent," he says, "they might be counted by 
thousands; in my slung cot by hundreds; on my 
clothes they were by fifties ; on my neck and head 
they were by scores. The several plagues of 
locusts, fleas and lice sink into utter insignificance 
compared with this damnable one of earwigs." 
Their presence drove him almost insane. Next 
to these come the white ants, that threatened in a 
short time to eat up every article of baggage. 

He now pushed on toward the Ugogo district, 
famous for the tribute it exacted from all caravans. 



CHAPTER V. 

TRIALS BY THE WAY. 

ON the 2 2cl of May the two other caravans 
of Stanley joined him, only three hours' 
march from Mpwapwa, so that the one 
caravan numbered some four hundred souls, but it 
was none too large to insure a safe transit through 
dreaded Ugogo. A waterless desert thirty miles 
across, and which it would take seventeen hours 
to traverse, now lay before them. On the way, 
Stanley was struck down with fever and, borne 
alone in a hammock, was indifferent to the herds 
of giraffes, and zebras, and antelopes that scoured 
the desert plain around him. The next morning 
the fever had left him and mounting, he rode at 
the head of his caravan, and at 8 a. m. had passed 
the sterile wilderness and entered the Ugogo dis- 
trict. He had now come into a land of plenty, but 
one also of extortion. The tribute that all passing 
caravans had to pay to the chiefs or sultans of 
this district was enormous. At the first villaee 
the appearance of this white man caused an inde- 
scribable uproar. The people came pouring out, 
men and women, naked, yelling, shouting, quarrel- 
ing and fighting, making it a perfect babel around 
Stanley, who became irritated at this unseemly 

(93) 



94 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



demonstration. But it was of no use. One of 
his men asked them to stop, but the only reply 
was "shut up" in good native language. Stanley, 
however, was soon oblivious of their curiosity or 
noise, as heavy doses of quinine to check a chill 
sent him off into a half doze. 

The next day, a march of eight miles brought 
him to the sultan of the district. Report did not 
exaggerate the abundance of provisions to be 
found here. Now came the pay of tribute to the 
exorbitant chief. After a great deal of parley, 
which was irritating and often childish, Stanley 
satisfied the sultan's greed, and on the 27th of 
May he shook the dust of the place from his feet 
and pushed westward. As he passed the thickly- 
scattered villages and plenteous fields, filled with 
tillers, he did not wonder at the haughty bearing 
of the sultan, for he could command force enough 
to rob and destroy every caravan that passed that 
way. Twenty-seven villages lined the road to the 
next sultan's district, Matomhiru. This sultan 
was a modern Hercules, with head and shoulders 
that belonged to a giant. He proved, however, 
to be a much more reasonable man than the last 
sultan, and, after a little speechifying, the tribute 
was paid and the caravan moved off toward Biha- 
wena. The day was hot, the land sterile, crossed 
with many jungles, which made the march slow 
and difficult. In the midst of this desolate plain 
were the villages of the tribe, their huts no higher 



D O WN WITH FE VER. . g r 

than the dry, bleached grass that stood glimmer- 
ing in the heat of the noonday sun. Here he 
was visited by three natives, who endeavored to 
play a sharp game on him, which so enraged Stan- 
ley that he would have flogged them out of camp 
with his whip, but one of his men told him to be- 
ware, for every blow would cost three or four 
yards of cloth. Not willing to pay so dearly to 
gratify his temper he forbore. The sultan was 
moderate in his demands, and from him he re- 
ceived news from his fourth caravan, which was 
in advance, and had had a fight with some rob- 
bers, killing two of them. 

The water here was so vile that two donkeys 
died from drinking of it, while the men could 
hardly swallow it. Stanley, nervous and weak 
from fever, paid the extravagant tributes de- 
manded of him, without altercation. From here 
to the next sultan was a long stretch of forest, 
filled with elephants, rhinoceros, zebras, deer, etc. 
But they had no time to stop and hunt. At noon 
they had left the last water they should find until 
noon of the next day, even with sharp marching, 
and hence, no delay could be permitted. The 
men without tents bivouacked under the trees, 
while Stanley tossed and groaned all night in a 
paroxysm of fever, but his courage in no way 
weakened. At dawn the caravan started off 
through the dark forest, in which one of the car- 
riers fell sick and died. 



9 6 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



At 7 a. m. they drew near Nyambwa, where ex- 
cellent water was found. The villagers here 
crowded around them with shouts and yells, and 
finally became so insolent that Stanley grabbed 
one of them by the neck and gave him a sound 
thrashing with his donkey-whip. This enraged 
them, and they walked backward and forward like 
angry tom-cats, shouting, "Are the Wagogo to be 
beaten like slaves ?" and they seemed by their 
ferocious manner determined to avenge their com- 
rade, but the moment Stanley raised his whip and 
advanced they scattered. Finding that the long 
lash, which cracked like a pistol, had a wholesome 
effect, whenever they crowded upon h^m so as to 
impede his progress, he laid it about him without 
mercy, which soon cleared a path. 

The Sultan Kimberah was a small, queer and 
dirty old man, a great drunkard, and yet the most 
powerful of all the Ugogo chiefs. Here they had 
considerable trouble in arranging the amount of 
tribute, but at length everything was settled and 
the caravan passed on and entered on a vast salt 
plain containing a hundred or more square miles, 
from the salt springs of which the Wagogo ob- 
tained their salt. At Mizarza, the next camping- 
place, Stanley was compelled to halt and doctor 
himself for the fever which was wearing him to 
skin and bones. Early in the morning he began 
to take his quinine, and kept repeating the doses 
at short intervals until a copious perspiration told 



STRANGE TRIBES. gj 

him he had broken the fever which had been con- 
suming him for fourteen days. During this time, 
the sultan of the district, attracted by Stanley's 
lofty tent, with the American flag floating above 
it, visited him. He was so astonished at the lofti- 
ness and furnishing 1 of the tent, that in his sur- 
prise he let fall the loose cloth that hung from his 
shoulders and stood stark naked in front of Stan- 
ley, gaping in mute wonder. Admonished by his 
son — a lad fifteen years old — he resumed his 
garb and sat down to talk. Stanley showed him 
his rifles and other fire-arms, which astonished 
him beyond measure. 

On the 4th of June, the caravan was started 
forward again, and after three hours' march it 
came upon another district, containing only two 
villages occupied by pastoral Wahumba and Wa- 
hehe. These live in cow-dung cone huts, shaped 
like Tartar tents. Stanley says : 

" The Wahumba, so far as I have seen them, are 
a fine and well-formed race. The men are posi- 
tively handsome, tall, with small heads, the pos- 
terior parts of which project considerably. One 
will look in vain for a thick lip or flat nose amongst 
them ; on the contrary, the mouth is exceedingly 
well cut, delicately small ; the nose is that of the 
Greeks, and so universal was the peculiar feature, 
that I at once named them the Greeks of Africa. 
Their lower limbs have not the heaviness of the 
Wagogo and other tribes, but are long and 
7 



9 8 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



shapely, clean as those of an antelope. Their 
necks are long and slender, on which their small 
heads are poised most gracefully. Athletes from 
their youth, shepherd bred, and intermarrying 
among themselves, thus keeping the race pure, 
any of them would form a fit subject for a sculptor 
who would wish to immortalize in marble an An- 
trinus, a Hylas, a Daphnis, or an Apollo. The 
women are as beautiful as the men are handsome. 
They have clear ebon skins, not coal black, but 
of an inky hue. Their ornaments consist of spiral 
rings of brass pendent from the ears, brass ring 
collars about the neck, and a spiral cincture of 
brass wire about their loins, for the purpose of 
retaining their calf and goat skins, which are 
folded about their bodies, and depending from the 
shoulder, shade one-half of the bosom, and fall to 
the knees. 

" The Wahehe may be styled the Romans of 
Africa. 

" Resuming our march, after a halt of an hour, 
in four hours more we arrived at Mukondoku 
proper. 

"This extremity of Ugogo is most populous. 
The villages which surround the central tembe, 
where the Sultan Swaruru lives, amount to thirty- 
six. The people who flocked from these to see 
the wonderful men whose faces were white who 
wore the most wonderful things on their persons, 
and possessed the most wonderful weapons* guns 



A COWARDLY MOB. gg 

which 'bum-bummed' as fast as you could count 
on your fingers, formed such a mob of howling 
savages, that I, for an instant, thought there was 
something besides mere curiosity which caused 
such a commotion, and attracted such numbers to 
the roadside. Halting, I asked what was the 
matter, and what they wanted, and why they made 
such a noise ? One burly rascal, taking my words 
for a declaration of hostilities, promptly drew his 
bow, but as prompt as he had fixed his arrow my 
faithful Winchester with thirteen shots in the 
magazine was ready and at my shoulder, and but 
waited to see the arrow fly to pour the leaden 
messengers of death into the crowd. But the 
crowd vanished as quickly as they had come, 
leaving the burly Thersites, and two or three 
irresolute fellows of his tribe, standing within 
pistol range of my leveled rifle. Such a sudden 
dispersion of the mob which, but a moment be- 
fore, was overwhelming, caused me to lower my 
rifle and indulge in a hearty laugh at the disgrace- 
ful flight of the men-destroyers. The Arabs, who 
were as much alarmed at their boisterous obtru- 
siveness, now came up to patch a truce, in which 
they succeeded to everybody's satisfaction. 

"A few words of explanation, and the mob came 
back in greater numbers than before; and the 
Thersites who had been the cause of the momen- 
tary disturbance were obliged to retire abashed 
before the pressure of public opinion. A chief 



IOO 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



now came up, whom I afterwards learned was the 
second man to Swaruru, and lectured the people 
upon their treatment of the 'white strangers."' 

The tribute-money was easily settled here. On 
the 7th of June, the route was resumed. There 
were three roads leading to Uyanzi, and which of 
the three to take caused long discussion and much 
quarreling, and when Stanley settled the matter 
and the caravan started off on the road to Kiti, 
an attempt was made to direct it to another road, 
which Stanley soon discovered and prevented only 
by his prompt resort to physical arguments. 

At last they reached the borders of Uyanzi, glad 
to be clear of the land of Ugogo, said to be flowing 
with milk and honey but which had proved to 
Stanley a land of gall and bitterness. The forest 
they entered was a welcome change from the vil- 
lages of the Ugogo, and two hours after leaving 
them they came, with the merry sound of horns, to 
a river in a new district. Continuing on, they 
made the forest ring with cheers, and shouts, and 
native songs. The country was beautiful, and the 
scenery more like cultivated England in former 
times than barbaric Africa. 

Passing thus merrily on, they had made twenty 
miles by five o'clock. At one o'clock next morn- 
ing the camp was roused, and by the light of the 
moon the march was resumed, and at three o'clock 
they arrived at a village to rest till dawn. They 
had reached a land of plenty and fared well. Kiti 



THE COUNTRY DESCRIBED. IOI 

was entered on the ioth of June. Here cattle 
and grain could be procured in abundance. 

A valley fifteen miles distant was the next camp, 
and a march of three hours and a half brought 
them to another village, where provisions were 
very cheap. They were now approaching Unyan- 
yembe, their first great stopping-place, and where 
the term of service of many of Stanley's men 
expired. They marched rapidly now, — to-day 
through grain-fields, to-morrow past burnt villages, 
the wreck of bloody wars. 

At last, with banners flying and trumpets and 
horns blowing, and amid volleys of small arms, the 
caravan entered Unyanyembe. 

Of the three routes from the coast to this place, 
Stanley discarded the two that had before been 
traveled by Speke and Burton and Grant and 
chose the third, with the originality of an Ameri- 
can, and thus saved nearly two hundred miles* 
travel. 

Mr. Stanley, after reaching this first great 
objective point, goes back and gives a general 
description of the regions he has traversed. To 
the geographer, it may be of interest, but not to 
the general reader. But the following, taken 
from his long account, will give the reader a clear 
idea of the country traversed and of its inhabitants. 
Beginning with Wiami River, emptying into the 
Indian Ocean near Zanzibar, he says: 

"First it appears to me that the Wiami River is 



102 



/ 
IV THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



available for commerce and, by a little improve- 
ment, could be navigated by light-draft steamers 
near to the Usagara Mountains, the healthy region 
of this part of Africa, and which could be reached 
by steamers in four days from the coast, and then 
it takes one into a country where ivory, sugar, 
cotton, indigo and other productions can be ob- 
tained." 

Besides, he says : • 

" Four days by steamer bring the missionary to 
the healthy uplands of Africa, where he can live 
amongst the gentle Wasagara without fear or 
alarm ; where he can enjoy the luxuries of civilized 
life without fear of being deprived of them, amid 
the most beautiful and picturesque scenes a poetic 
fancy could imagine. Here is the greenest ver- 
dure, purest water ; here are valleys teeming with 
grain-stalks, forests of tamarind, mimosa, gum- 
copal tree ; here is the gigantic moule, the stately 
mparamnsi, the beautiful palm ; a scene such as 
only a tropic sky covers. Health and abundance 
of food are assured to the missionary ; gentle 
people are at his feet, ready to welcome him. 
Except civilized society, nothing that the soul of 
man can desire is lacking here. 

"From the village of Kadetamare a score of 
admirable mission sites are available, with fine 
health-giving breezes blowing over them, water in 
abundance at their feet, fertility unsurpassed 
around them, with docile, good-tempered people 



WHAT AFRICA MAY BE. I0 2 

dwelling everywhere at peace with each other, and 
with all travelers and neighbors. 

"As the passes of the Olympus unlocked the 
gates of the Eastern empires to the hordes of 
Othman ; as the passes of Kumayle and Sura 
admitted the British into Abyssinia ; so the passes 
of the Mukondokwa may admit the Gospel and 
its beneficent influences into the heart of savage 
Africa. 

" I can fancy old Kadetamare rubbing his hands 
with glee at the sight of the white man coming to 
teach his people the words of the 'IVlulungu' — 
the Sky Spirit ; how to sow, and reap, and build 
houses ; how to cure their sick, how to make 
themselves comfortable — in short, how to be civil- 
ized. But the missionary, to be successful, must 
know his duties as well as a thorough sailor must 
know how to reef, hand and steer. He must be 
no kid-glove, effeminate man, no journal writer, no 
disputatious polemic, no silken stole and chasuble- 
loving priest, but a thorough, earnest laborer in 
the garden of the Lord, — a man of the David Liv- 
ingstone, or of the Robert Moffatt stamp. 

"The other river, the Rufiji, or Ruhwha, is a 
still more important stream than Wiami. It is a 
much longer river, and discharges twice as much 
water into the Indian Ocean. It rises near some 
mountains about one hundred miles southwest 
of Nbena. Kisigo River, the most northern and 
most important affluent of the Ruhwha, is sup- 



IOA IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

posed to flow into it near east longitude thirty- 
five degrees ; from the confluence to the sea, the 
Ruhwha has a length of four degrees of direct 

o o 

longitude. This fact, of itself, must prove its 
importance and rank among the rivers of East 
Africa. 

" After Zanzibar, our debut- into Africa is made 
via Bagomayo. At this place we may see Wan- 
gindo, Wasawahili, Warori, Wagogo, Wanyam- 
wezi, Waseguhha and Wasagara ; yet it would be 
a difficult task for any person, at mere sight of 
their dresses or features, to note the differences. 
Only by certain customs or distinctive marks, 
such as tattooing, puncturing of the lobes of the 
ears, ornaments, wearing the hair, etc., which 
would appear, at first, too trivial to note, could one 
discriminate between the various tribal represen- 
tatives. There are certainly differences, but not 
so varied or marked as they are reported. 

" The Wasawahili, of course, through their in- 
tercourse with semi-civilization, present us with a 
race, or tribe, influenced by a state of semi-civil- 
ized society, and are, consequently, better dressed 
and appear to better advantage than their more 
savage brethren farther west. As it is said that 
underneath the Russian skin lies the Tartar, so it 
may be said that underneath the snowy dish- 
dasheh, or shirt of the Wasawahili, one will find 
the true barbarian. In the street or bazaar he 
appears semi-Arabized ; his suavity of manner, 



TRIBES OF AFRICA. io c 

his prostrations and genuflexions, the patois he 
speaks, all prove his contact and affinity with the 
dominant race, whose subject he is. Once out of 
the coast towns, in the Washensi villages, he sheds 
the shirt that had half civilized him, and appears 
in all his deep blackness of skin, prognathous 
jaws, thick lips — the pure negro and barbarian. 
Not keenest eye could detect the difference be- 
tween him and the Washensi, unless his attention 
had been drawn to the fact that the two men were 
of different tribes. 

"The next tribe to which we are introduced are 
the Wakwere, who occupy a limited extent of 
country between the Wazaramo and the Wadoe. 
They are the first representatives of the pure 
barbarian the traveler meets, when but two days' 
journey from the sea-coast. They are a timid 
tribe and a very unlikely people to commence an 
attack upon any body of men for mere plunder's 
sake. They have not a very good reputation 
among the Arab and Wasawahili traders. They 
are said to be exceedingly dishonest, of which I 
have not the least doubt. They furnished me 
with good grounds for beliving these reports 
while encamped at Kingaru, Hera and Imbiki. 
The chiefs of the more eastern part of Ukwere 
profess nominal allegiance to the Dwians of the 
Mrima. They have selected the densest jungles 
wherein to establish their villages. Every en- 
trance ir^to one of their valleys is jealously guarded 



io 5 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

by strong wooden gates, seldom over four and a 
half feet high, and so narrow, sometimes, that one 
must enter sideways. 

" These jungle islets which in particular dot the 
extent of Ukwere, present formidable obstacles 
to a naked enemy. The plants, bushes and young- 
trees which form their natural defense, are gen- 
erally of the aloetic and thorny species, growing 
so dense, interlaced one with the other, that the 
hardest and most desperate robber would not 
brave the formidable array of sharp thorns which 
bristle everywhere. 

"Some of these jungle islets are infested with 
gangs of banditti, who seldom fail to take advan- 
tage of the weakness of a single wayfarer, more 
especially if he be a Mgwana — a freeman of Zan- 
zibar, as every negro resident of the island of 
Zanzibar is distinguished by the Washensi natives 
of the interior. 

"I should estimate the population of Ukwere, 
allowing about one hundred villages to this terri- 
tory (which is not more than thirty miles square, 
its bounds on the south being the Rufu River, 
and on the north the River Wiami),at not more 
than five thousand souls. Were all these banded 
together under the command of one chief, the 
Wakwere might become a powerful tribe. 

"After the Wakwere we come to the Wakami, 
a remnant of the once grand nation which oc- 
cupied the lands from the Ungerengeri to the 



TRIBES OF AFRICA. lQ y 

Great Makata River. Frequent wars with the 
Wadoe and Waseguhha have reduced them to a 
narrow belt of country, ten rectilinear miles across, 
which may be said to be comprised between Kiva 
Peak and. the stony ridge bounding the valley of 
the Ungerengeri on the east, within a couple of 
miles from the east bank of the river. 

"They are as numerous as bees in the Unger- 
engeri Valley. The unsurpassed fertility has been 
a great inducement to retain for these people the 
distinction of a tribe. By the means of a spy- 
glass one may see, as he stands on the top of that 
stony ridge looking down into the fair valley, clus- 
ters of brown huts visible amid bosky clumps, 
fullness and plenty all over the valley, and may 
count easily over a hundred villages. 

"From Ukami, we pass Southern Udoe, and find 
a warlike, fine-looking people, with a far more 
intelligent cast of features, and a shade lighter 
than the Wakami and Wakwere — a people who 
are full of traditions of race, a people who have 
boldly rushed to war upon the slightest encroach- 
ment upon their territories, and who have bravely 
defended themselves against the Waseguhha and 
Wakami, as well as against nomadic marauders 
from Uhumba. 

"Udoe, in appearance, is amongst the most pic- 
turesque countries between the sea and Nyan- 
yembe. Great cones shoot upward above the 
everlasting forest, tipped by the light, fleecy clouds, 



I og IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

through which the warm, glowing sun darts its 
rays, bathing the whole in sunlight, which brings 
out those globes of foliage, which rise in tier after 
tier to the summits of the hills, colors which would 
mock the most ambitious painter's efforts at imi- 
tation. Udoe first evokes the traveler's love of 
natural beauty after leaving the sea, her roads 
lead him up along the sharp spines of hilly ridges, 
whence he may look down upon the forest-clad 
slopes, declining on either side of him into the 
depths of deep valleys, to rise up beyond into 
aspiring cones which kiss the sky, or into a high 
ridge with deep, concentric folds, which almost 
tempt one to undergo much labor in exploring 
them for the provoking air of mystery in which 
they seem to be enwrapped. 

" What a tale this tribe could relate of the slave- 
trader's deeds. Attacked by the joint forces of 
the Waseguhha from the west and north, and the 
slave-traders of Whinde and Sa'adani from the 
east, the Wadoe have seen their wives and little 
ones carried into slavery a hundred times, and 
district after district taken from their country, and 
attached to Useguhha. For the people of Use- 
guhha were hired to attack their neighbors, the 
Wadoe, by the Whinde slave-traders, and were 
also armed with muskets and supplied with ammu- 
nition by them, to effect large and repeated cap- 
tures of Wadoe slaves. The people of this tribe, 
especially women and children, so superior in 



MARKS AND WEAPONS. IO g 

physique and intelligence to the servile races by 
which they were surrounded, were eagerly sought 
for as concubines and domestics by the lustful 
Mohammedans. 

"This tribe we first note to have distinctive 
tribal marks — by a line of punctures extending 
lengthwise on each side of the face, and a chipping 
of the two inner sides of the two middle teeth of 
the upper row. 

"The arms of this tribe are similar to the arms 
of the Wakami and Wakwere, and consist of a 
bow and arrows, a shield, a couple of light spears 
or assegais, a long knife, a handy little battle-axe 
and a club with a large knob at the end of it, which 
latter is dexterously swung at the head of an 
enemy, inflicting a stunning and sometimes a fatal 
blow. 

"Emerging from the forest of Mikeseh, we enter 
the territory of the Waseguhha, or Wasegura, as 
the Arabs wrongly call this country. Useguhha 
extends over two degrees in length, and its great- 
est breadth is ninety geographical miles, It has 
two main divisions, that of Southern Useguhha, 
from Uruguini to the Wiami River, and Northern 
Useguhha, under the chieftain Moto, from the 
Wiami River to Umagassi and Usumbara. 

" Mostly all the Waseguhha warriors are armed 
with muskets, and the Arabs supply them with 
enough ammunition, in return for which they attack 
Waruguru, Wadoe and Wakwenni, to obtain slaves 



IIO IN. THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

for the Arab market, and it is but five years since 
the Waseguhha organized a successful raid into 
the very heart of the Wasagara Mountains, during 
which they desolated the populated part of the 
Makata plain, capturing over five hundred valu- 
able slaves. 

Formerly wars in this country ware caused by 
blood feuds between different chiefs ; they are now 
encouraged by the slave buyers of the Mirma, for 
the purpose of supplying these human chattels for 
the market of Zanzibar. The Waseguhha are 
about the most thorough believers in witchcraft, 
yet the professors of this dark science fare badly 
at their hands. It is a very common sight to see 
cinereous piles on the roadside, and the waving 
garments suspended to the branches of trees 
above them, which mark the fate of the unfortu- 
nate 'Waganga' or medicine man. So long as 
their predictions prove correct and have a happy 
culmination, these professors of 'uchawi' — magic 
art — are regarded with favor by the people; but 
if an unusual calamity overtakes a family, and 
they can swear that it is the result of the magi- 
cian's art, a quorum of relentless inquisition is soon 
formed, and a like fate to that which overtook the 
'witches' in the dark days of New England surely 
awaits him. 

" Enough dead wood is soon found in their Afri- 
can forests, and the unhappy one perishes by fire, 
and, as a warning to all false professors of the art, 



WITCHCRAFT. 



Ill 




EXECUTION FOR WITCHCRAFT. 



Sometimes performed by burning ; at other times by beheadal and casting 
into the river. 



AFRICAN ORNAMENTATION. l j * 

his loin-cloth is hung up to a tree above the spot 
where he met his doom. 

"In Southern Usagara, the people are most 
amiable ; but in the north, in those districts adja- 
cent to the Wahumba, the people partake of the 
ferocious character of their fierce neighbors. Re- 
peated attacks from the Waseguhha kidnappers, 
from the Wadirigo or Wahehe robbers on the 
southwest, from Wagogo on the west and from 
Wahumba on the north, have caused them to 
regard strangers with suspicion ; but after a short 
acquaintance they prove to be a frank, amiable 
and brave people. Indeed, they have good cause 
to be distrustful of the Arabs and the Wangwana 
of Zanzibar. Mbumi, Eastern Usagara, has been 
twice burned down, within a few years, by the 
Arabian Waseguhha kidnappers; Rehemeko has 
met the same fate, and it was not many years ago 
since Abdullah bin Nasib carried fire and sword 
from Misonghi to Mpwapwa. Kanyaparu, lord 
of the hills around Chunyo, Kunyo, once cultivated 
one-fourth of the Marenga, Mkali ; but is now 
restricted to the hill-tops, from fear of the Wadi- 
rigo marauders. 

"The Wasagara, male and female, tattoo the 
forehead, bosom and arms. Besides inserting the 
neck of a gourd in each ear — which carries his lit- 
tle store of ' tumbac ' or tobacco, and lime, which 
he has obtained by burning land shells — he car- 
ries quite a number of primitive ornaments around 
8 



j j 4 Z/V r/ZS WILDS OF AFRICA. 

his neck, such as two or three snowy cowrie-shells, 
carved pieces of wood, or a small goat's horn, or 
some medicine consecrated by the medicine man 
of the tribe, a fund of red or white beads, or two 
or three pieced Lungomazzi egg-beads, or a string 
of copper coins, and sometimes small brass chains, 
like a cheap Jack watch-chain. These things they 
have either made themselves or purchased from 
Arab traders for chickens or goats. The children 
all go naked ; youths wear a goat or sheep-skin ; 
grown men and women, blessed with progeny, 
wear domestic or a loin-cloth of Kaniki, or a bar- 
sati, which is a favorite colored cloth in Usagara ; 
chiefs wear caps such as are worn by .the Wam- 
rima Diwans, or the Arab tarboosh. 

" Next on our line of march, appears the Wa- 
gogo, a powerful race, inhabiting the region west 
of Usagara to Uyanzi, which is about eighty miles 
in breadth and about one hundred in length. 

" The traveler has to exercise great prudence, 
discretion and judgment in his dealings with them. 
Here he first heard the word 'houga' after pass- 
ing Limbomwenni, a word which signifies tribute, 
though it formerly meant a present to a friend. 
Since it is exacted from him with threats, that if it 
is not paid they will make war on him, its best 
interpretation would be, * forcibly extorted tribute 
or toll/ 

" Naturally, if the traveler desires to be mulcted 
of a large sum, he will find the Wagogo ready to 



A NOBLER TRIBE. 



"5 



receive every shred of cloth he gives them. 
Moumi will demand sixty cloths, and will wonder 
at his own magnanimity in asking such a small 
number of cloths from a great Musungu (white 
man). The traveler, however, will be wise if he 
permits his chief men to deal with them, after en- 
joining them to be careful, and not commit them- 
selves too hastily to any number or amount of 
gifts. 

" They are, physically and intellectually, the best 
of the races between Unyamwezi and the sea. 
Their color is a rich dark brown. There is some- 
thing in their frontal aspect which is almost leo- 
nine. Their faces are broad and intelligent. Their 
eyes are large and round. Their noses are flat, 
and their mouths are very large ; but their lips, 
though thick, are not so monstrously thick as 
those our exaggerated ideal of a negro has. For 
all this, though the Wagogo is a ferocious man, 
capable of proceeding to any length upon the 
slighest temptation, he is an attractive figure to 
the white traveler. He is proud of his chief, 
proud of his country, sterile and unlovable though 
it be ; he is proud of himself, his prowess, his 
weapons and his belongings ; he is vain, terribly 
egotistic, a bully, and a tyrant, yet the Wagogo is 
capable of forming friendships, and of exerting 
himself for friendship's sake. One grand vice in 
his character, which places him in a hostile light 
to travelers, is his exceeding avarice and greed 



j j 5 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

for riches ; and if the traveler suffers by this, he is 
not likely to be amiably disposed toward him. 

" This sturdy native, with his rich complexion, 
his lion front, his menacing aspect, bullying nature, 
haughty, proud and quarrelsome, is a mere child 
with a man who will devote himself to the study 
of his nature, and not offend his vanity. He 
is easily angered, and his curiosity is easily 
aroused. A traveler with an angular disposition 
is sure to quarrel with him — but, in the presence 
of this rude child of nature, especially when he is 
so powerful, it is to his advantage and personal 
safety to soften those angles of his own nature. 
The Wagogo 'Rob Roy' is on his native ground, 
and has a decided advantage over the white 
foreigner. He is not brave, but he is at least COn- 
scious of the traveler's weakness, and he is dis- 
posed to take advantage of it, but is prevented 
from committing an act because it is to his ad- 
vantage to keep the peace. Any violence to a 
traveler would close the road ; caravans would 
seek other ways, and the chiefs would be deprived 
of much of their revenues. 

" The Wagogo warrior carries as his weapons a 
bow and a sheaf of murderous-looking arrows, 
pointed, pronged and barbed; a couple of light, 
beautifully-made assegais ; a broad, sword-like 
spear, with a blade over two feet long ; a battle- 
axe, and a rungu or knob-club. He has also a 
shield, painted with designs in black and white, 



WARRIORS AND WARFARE. 



117 




AFRICAN WARRIORS. 



The shields and assegais are flourished in the air while the demon-like 
warriors dance and yell in preparation for battle. 



WARRIORS ARMED. ! j g 

oval-shaped, sometimes of rhinoceros, or ele- 
phant, or .bull-hide. From the time he was a tod- 
dling urchin he has been familiar with his weap- 
ons, and by the time he was fifteen years old he 
was an adept with them. 

" He is armed for battle in a very short time. 
The messenger from the chief darts from village 
to village, and blows his ox-horn, the signal for 
war. The warrior hears it, throws his hoe over 
his shoulder, enters his house, and in a few seconds 
issues out again, arrayed in war-paint and full 
fighting costume. Feathers of the ostrich, or the 
eagle, or the vulture nod above his head ; his long 
crimson robe streams behind him, his shield is on 
his left arm, his darting assegai in his left hand, 
and his ponderous man-cleaver — double-edged 
and pointed, heading a strong staff — is in his right 
hand ; jingling bells are tied around his ankles 
and knees ; ivory wristlets are on his arms, with 
which he sounds his approach. With the plodding 
peasant's hoe he has dropped the peasant's garb, 
and is now the proud, vain, exultant warrior — 
bounding aloft like a gymnast, eagerly sniffing the 
battle-field. The strength and power of the Wa- 
gogo are derived from their numbers. 

"Though caravans of Wagogo are sometimes 
found passing up and down the Unyamwezi road, 
they are not so generally employed as the Wan- 
yamwezi in trade. Their villages are thus always 
full of warriors. Weak tribes, or remnants of 



T 20 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

tribes are very glad to be admitted under their 
protection. Individuals of other tribes, also, who 
have been obliged to exile themselves from their 
own tribes, for some deed of violence, are often 
found in the villages of the Wagogo. In the north, 
the Wahumba are very numerous; in the south 
may be found the Wahehe and Wakimbu, and in 
the east may be /found many a family from Usa- 
gara. Wanyamwi are also frequently found in 
this country. Indeed, these latter people are like 
Scotchmen, they may be found almost everywhere 
throughout Central Africa, and have a knack of 
pushing themselves into prominence. 

"As in Western Usagara, the houses of the 
Wagogo are square, arranged around the four 
sides of an area — to which all the doors open. 
The roofs are all flat, on which are spread the 
grain, herbs, tobacco and pumpkins. The back 
of each department is pierced with small holes for 
observation and for defense. 

"The tembe is a fragile affair as constructed in 
Wagogo; it merely consists of a line of slender 
sticks daubed over with mud, with three or four 
strong poles planted at intervals to support the 
beams and rafters, on which rests the flat clay roof. 
A musket-ball pierces the wattled walls of a 
Wagogo tembe through and through. In Uyanzi, 
the tembe is a formidable affair, because of the 
abundance of fine trees, which are cut down and 
split into rails three or four inches thick. 



FIL THY HOMES. j 2 j 

"The tembe is divided into apartments, sepa- 
rated from each other by a wattled wall. Each 
apartment may contain a family of grown-up boys 
and girls, who form their beds on the floor, out of 
dressed hides. The father of the family, only, has 
a kitanda, or fixed cot, made of ox-hide, stretched 
over a frame, or of the bark of the myombo tree. 
The floor is of tamped mud, and is exceedingly 
filthy, smelling strongly of every abomination. In 
the corners, suspended to the rafters, are the fine, 
airy dwellings of black spiders of very large size, 
and other monstrous insects. 

"Rats, a peculiarly long-headed, dun-colored 
species, infest every tembe. Cows, goats, sheep 
and cats are the only domestic animals permitted 
to dwell within the tembe. 

"The Wa£0£0 believe in the existence of a God, 
or sky spirit, whom they call Mulungu. Their 
prayers are generally directed to him when their 
parents die. A Wagogo, after he has consigned 
his father to the grave, collects his father's chattels 
together, his cloth, his ivory, his knife, his jeinbe 
(hoe), his bows and arrows, his spear and his cattle, 
and kneels before them, repeating a wish that 
Mulungu would increase his worldly wealth, that 
he would bless his labors and make him successful 
in trade. They venerate, and often perform a 
dance in honor of the moon. 

"The following conversation occurred between 
myself and a Wagogo trader: 



j 22 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



" 'Who do you suppose made your parents ?' 
"'Why, Mulungu, white man.' 
" 'Well, who made you?' 

" 'If God made my father, God made me, didn't 
He?' 

'"That's very good. Where do you suppose 
your father has gone to, now that he is dead ?' 

"'The dead die,' said he, solemnly, 'they are no 
more. The sultan dies, he becomes nothing — he 
is then no better than a dead dog; he is finished, 
his words are finished — there are no words from 
him. It is true,' he added, seeing a smile on my 
face, ' the sultan becomes nothing. He who says 
other words is a liar. There.' 

" 'But then he is a very great man, is he not?' 

" 'While he lives only — after death he goes into 
the pit, and there is no more to be said of him 
than any other man.' 

" ' How do you bury a Wagogo ?' 

"'His legs are tied together, his right arm to 
his body, and his left is put under his head. He 
is then rolled on his left side in the grave. His 
cloth he wore during his life is spread over him. 
We put the earth over him, and put thorn-bushes 
over it, to prevent the fize (hyena) from getting 
at him. A woman is put on her right side in a 
grave apart from the man.' 

" 'What do you do with the sultan, when he is 
dead?' 

" 'We bury him, too, of course ; only he is buried 



SOCIAL CUSTOMS. I2 2 

in the middle of the village, and we build a house 
over it. Each time they kill an ox, they kill be- 
fore his grave. When the old sultan dies, the new 
one calls for an ox, and kills it before his grave, 
calling- on Mulunofu to witness that he is the rigfht- 
ful sultan. He then distributes the meat in his 
father's name.' 

" 'Who succeeds the sultan ? Is he the eldest 
son?' 

"'Yes, if he has a son ; if childless, the great 
chief next to him in rank. The msagira is the 
next to the sultan, whose business it is to hear the 
cause of complaint, and convey it to the sultan, 
who, through the sultan, dispenses justice, he 
receives the honga, carries it to the mtemi (sul- 
tan), places it before him, and when the sultan has 
taken what he wishes, the rest goes to the msagiri. 
The chiefs are called manya-para; the msagiri is 
the chief manya-para.' 

" 'How do the Wagogo marry?' 
" 'Oh, they buy their women.' 
'"What is a woman worth?' 
"'A very poor man can buy his wife from her 
father for a couple of goats.' 

" 'How much has the sultan got to pay?' 
" 'He has got to pay about one hundred goats, 
or so many cows, so many sheep and goats, to his 
bride's father. Of course, he is a chief. The sul- 
tan would not buy a common woman. The father's 
consent is to be obtained, and the cattle have to 



12 a IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

be given up. It takes many days to finish the talk 
about it. All the family and friends of the bride 
have to talk about it before she leaves her father's 
house.' 

"'In cases of murder, what do you do to the 
man that kills another?' 

"'The murderer has to pay fifty cows. If he is 
too poor to pay, the sultan gives permission to 
the murdered man's friends or relatives to kill 
him. If they catch him, they tie him to a tree, and 
throw spears at him — one at a time first ; they 
then spring on him, cut his head off, then his arms 
and limbs, and scatter them about the country.' * 

"'How do you punish a thief?' 

"'If he is found stealing, he is killed at once, 
and nothino- is said about it. Is he not a thief?' 

" 'But, suppose you do not know who the thief 
is?' 

'"If a man is brought before us accused of steal- 
ing, we kill a chicken. If the entrails are white, 
he is innocent; if yellow, he is guilty.' 

'"Do you believe in witchcraft?' 

'"Of course we do, and punish the man with 
death who bewitches cattle or stops rain.' 

"Sacrifices of human life as penalty for witch- 
craft and kindred superstitions — indeed for many 
trivial offenses — are painfully numerous among 
nearly all the tribes. 

"Next to Wagogo is Uyanzi, or the 'Magunda 
Mkali'— the Hot Field. 



MODES OF PUNISHMENT. 



125 




WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE. 



Human life is sacrificed as a penalty for witchcraft, theft, murder and 
many trivial offenses. 



A GRICUL TURE. I2 y 

" Uyanzi or Magunda Mkali is at present very 
populous. Along the northern route — that lead- 
ing via Munieka — water is plentiful enough, vil- 
lages are frequent and travelers begin to perceive 
that the title is inappropriate. The people who 
inhabit the country are Wakimbu from the south. 
They are good agriculturists, and are a most in- 
dustrious race. They are something like the 
Wasagara in appearance, but do not obtain a very 
high reputation for bravery. Their weapons con- 
sist of light spears, bows and arrows, and battle- 
axes. Their tembes are strongly made, showing 
considerable skill in the art of defensive construc- 
tion. Their bomas are„ so well made, that one 
would require cannon to effect an entrance, if the 
villages were at all defended. They are skillful, 
also, in constructing traps for elephants and buffa- 
loes. A stray lion or leopard is sometimes caught 
by them." 



CHAPTER VI. 

ADVENTURES IN GREAT VARIETY. 

STANLEY received a noiseless ovation in 
Unyanyembe as he walked with the gover- 
nor to his house. Soldiers and men by the 
hundreds, hovered round their chief, staring at 
him, while the naked children peered between the 
legs of the parents. Tea was served in a silver 
tea-pot and a sumptuous breakfast was furnished, 
which Stanley devoured as only a hungry man can, 
who has been shut up for so many months in the 
wilds of Africa. 

Then pipes and tobacco were produced, and 
amid the whiffs of smoke came out all the news 
that Stanley had brought from Zanzibar, while the 
gratified sheikh smoked and listened. When 
Stanley took his leave to look after his men his 
host accompanied him to show him the house he 
was to occupy while he remained. It was com- 
modious and quite luxurious after his long life in 
a tent. 

All the caravans had arrived, and he received 
the reports of the chief of each, while the goods 
were unpacked and examined. One had had a 
fight with the natives and beaten them, another 
had shot a thief, and the fourth had lost a bale of 

(128) 



CHIEFS OF TABNA. j 2 g 

goods. On the whole, Stanley was satisfied and 
thankful there had been no more serious misfor- 
tunes. Food was furnished with lavish prodi- 
gality, and while he was surfeiting himself, he 
ordered a bullock to be slain for his men, now 
reduced to twenty-five in number. 

On the second day of his arrival, the chief Arabs 
of Tabna came to visit him. This is the chief 
Arab settlement of Central Africa, and contains a 
thousand huts and about five thousand inhabitants. 
The Arabs are a fine, handsome set of men, and 
living amid rich pastures, they raise large herds 
of cattle and goats, and vegetables of all kinds, 
while their slaves bring back in caravans from 
Zanzibar the luxuries of the East, not only coffee, 
spices, wines, salmon, etc., but Persian carpets, rich 
bedding, and elegant table service. Some of 
them sport gold watches and chains. Each one 
keeps as many concubines as he can afford, the 
size of his harem being limited only by his means. 

These magnates from Tabna after finishing their 
visit, invited Stanley to visit their town and par- 
take of a feast they had prepared for him. Three 
days after, escorted by eighteen of his men, he 
returned the visit. He arrived in time to attend 
a council of war which was being held, as to the 
best manner of assertinp- their rights against a 
robber-chief named Mirambo. He had carried 
war through several tribes and claimed the right 
to waylay and rob Arab caravans. This must be 
9 



j^o IN THE WILDS OF AFRIQA. 

stopped, and it was resolved to make war against 
him in his stronghold. Stanley agreed to accom- 
pany them, taking his caravan a part of the way 
and leaving it until Mirambo was defeated, and 
the way to Ujiji cleared. 

Returning to Unyanyembe, he found the cara- 
van which had been made up to carry supplies to 
Livingstone in November ist, 1870. Having gone 
twenty-five miles from Zanzibar, to Bagomayo, it 
had stayed there one hundred days, when, hearing 
that the English consul was coming, it had started 
off in affright just previous to Stanley's arrival. 
Whether owing to his great change in diet or 
some other cause, Stanley was now stricken down 
with fever and for a week tossed in delirium. 
Selim, his faithful servant, took care of him. 
When he had recovered, the servant also was 
seized with it. 

But by the 29th of July all the sick had recov- 
ered, and the caravan was loaded up for Ujiji. 
But Bombay was absent and they had to wait 
from eight o'clock till two in the afternoon, he 
stubbornly refusing to leave his mistress. When 
he arrived and was ordered to his place he made 
a savage reply. The next moment Stanley's cane 
was falling like lightning on his shoulders. The 
poor fellow soon cried for mercy. The order 
" March " was then given, and the guide, with 
forty armed men behind him, led off with flags 
streaming. At first, in dead silence, they moved 



COUNCILS OF WAR. 



131 




A^COUNCIL OF WAR. 



The chiefs of the tribes in a certain vicinity meet to confer concerning 
their wrongs and to plan for redress. 



FIGHTING WITH MIRAMBO. j-j* 

on, but soon struck up a monotonous sort of 
chorus, which seemed to consist mostly of " Hoy, 
hoy," and was kept up all day. The second day 
he arrived at Masangi, where he was told the 
Arabs were waiting for him at Mfuto, six hours' 
march distant. The next morning, he arrived at 
the place where the AraS army was gathered, 
numbering in all two thousand two hundred and 
twenty-five men, of whom fifteen hundred were 
armed with guns. With banners flying and drums 
beating, they, on the 3d of August, marched forth, 
but in a few hours Stanley was again stricken 
down with fever. 

The next day the march was resumed, and at 
eleven o'clock Zimbize, the stronghold of the 
enemy, came in view. The forces quickly sur- 
rounded it. A general assault followed and the 
village was captured, the inhabitants fleeing toward 
the mountains, pursued closely by the yelling 
Arabs. Only twenty dead bodies were found 
within. The next day, two more villages were 
burned and the day after, a detachment five hun- 
dred strong scoured the country around, carrying 
devastation and ruin in their path. At this critical 
period of the campaign, Stanley was still down 
with fever, and while he lay in his hammock, news 
came that the detachment of five hundred men 
had been surprised and killed. Mirambo had 
turned and ambushed them, and now the boasting 
of the morning was turning into despondency. 



j 3, IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

The women made the night hideous with shrieks 
and lamentations over their slain husbands. The 
next day there was a regular stampede of the 
Arabs, and when Stanley was able to get out of 
his tent only seven men were left to him ; all the 
rest had returned to Mfuto, and soon after to 
Tabna twenty-five miles distant. 

It was plain that it was useless to open the direct 
road to Ujiji, which lay through Mirambo's dis- 
trict. In fact, it seemed impossible to get there at 
all, and the only course left was to return to the 
coast and abandon the project of reaching Living- 
stone altogether. But what would Livingstone 
do locked up at Ujiji? He might perhaps go 
north and meet Baker, who was moving with a 
strong force southward. But he was told by a 
man that Livingstone was coming to Nyano Lake 
toward the Tanganika, on which Ujiji is situated, 
at the very time it was last reported he was mur- 
dered. He was then walking, dressed in Ameri- 
can sheeting, having lost all his cloth in Lake 
Leemba. He had a breech-loading double-barreled 
rifle with him and two revolvers. Stanley felt that 
he could not give up trying to reach him now, 
when it was so probable that he was within four 
hundred miles of him. 

On the 13th, a caravan came in from the east 
and reported Farquhar dead at the place where 
he had been left. Ten days after, Mirambo at- 
tacked Tabna and set it on fire. Stanley, at this 



A FL YING CAR A VAN. j * r 

time, was encamped at Kwihara, in sight of the 
burning town. The refugees came pouring in, and 
Stanley, finding the men willing to stand by him, 
began to prepare for defense, and counting up his 
little force found he had one hundred and fifty 
men. He was not attacked, however, and five 
days after, Mirambo retreated. The Arabs held 
councils of war and urged Stanley to become their 
ally, but he refused, and finally took the bold reso- 
lution of organizing a flying caravan, and by a 
southern route and quick marching, reach Ujiji. 
This was August 27th, and the third month he had 
been in Unyanyembe. Having got together some 
forty men in all, he gave a great banquet to them 
prior to their departure, which an attack of fever 
caused him to postpone. On the 20th of Septem- 
ber, though too weak to travel, he mustered his 
entire force outside the town and found, that by 
additional men which the Arabs had succeeded in 
securing, it now numbered fifty-four men. When 
all was ready Bombay was again missing, and 
when found and brought up, excused himself, as 
of old, by saying he was bidding his " misses " 
good-bye. As he seemed inclined to pick a quar- 
rel with Stanley, the latter not being in the most 
amiable mood and wishing to teach the others a 
lesson, gave him a sound thrashing. 

Soon, everything being ready, the word " march " 
passed down the line and Stanley started on his 
last desperate attempt to push on to Ujiji, not 



136 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



much farther than from Albany to Buffalo as the 
crow flies, but by the way he would be compelled 
to go, no one knew how far, nor what time it 
would take to reach it. But Stanley had good 
reason to believe that Livingstone was alive, and 
from the reports he could get of his movements 
that he must be at or near Ujiji, and therefore to 
Ujiji he was determined to go, unless death stopped 
his progress. He had been set on a mission, and 
although the conditions were not that he should 
surmount impossibilities, still he would come as 
near to that as human effort could. Though sick 
with fever, and with that prostration and utter loss 
of will accompanying it, he nevertheless with that 
marvelous energy that is never exhibited except 
in rare exceptional characters, kept his great ob- 
ject in view. That never lost its hold on him 
under the most disastrous circumstances, neither 
in the delirium of fever nor in the utter prostra- 
tion that followed it. This tenacity of purpose 
and indomitable will ruling and governing him, 
where in all other men it would have had no 
power, exhibit the extraordinary qualities of this 
extraordinary man. We do not believe that he 
himself was fully aware of this inherent power, 
this fixedness of purpose that makes him different 
from all other men. No man possessing it is 
conscious of it any more than an utterly fearless 
man is conscious of his own courage. The fol- 
lowing touching extract from his journal at this 



DESPONDENCY. j ?j 

time lets in a flood of light on the character and 
the inner life of this remarkable man : 

"About 10 p. m. the fever had gone. All were 
asleep in the tembe but myself, and an unutterable 
loneliness came on me as I reflected on my posi- 
tion, and my intentions, and felt the utter lack of 
sympathy with me in all around. Even my own 
white assistant, with whom I had striven hard, was 
less sympathizing than my little black boy Kalulu. 
It requires more nerve than I possess to dispel all 
the dark presentiments that come upon the mind. 
But, probably, what I call presentiments are simply 
the impress on the mind of the warnings which 
these false-hearted Arabs have repeated so often. 
This melancholy and loneliness which I feel, may 
probably have their origin from the same cause. 
The single candle which barely lights up the dark 
shade which fills the corners of my room, is but 
a poor incentive to cheerfulness. I feel as though 
I were imprisoned between stone walls. But why 
should I feel as if baited by these stupid, slow- 
witted Arabs, and their warnings and croakings? 
I fancy a suspicion haunts my mind, as I write, 
that there lies some motive behind all this. 

"I wonder if these Arabs tell me all these things 
to keep me here, in the hope that I may be induced 
another time to assist them in their war against 
Mirambo! If they think so, they are much mis- 
taken, for I have taken a solemn, enduring oath 
— an oath to be kept while the least hope of life 



138 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



remains in me — not to be tempted to break the 
resolution I have formed, never to give up the 
search until I find Livingstone alive, or find his 
dead body; and never to return home without the 
strongest possible proofs that he is alive or that 
he is dead. No living man or living men shall 
stop me — only death can prevent me. But death 
— not even this ; I shall not die — I will not die — I 
cannot die ! 

" And something tells me, I do not know what 
it is — perhaps it is the everliving hopefulness of 
my own nature ; perhaps it is the natural presump- 
tion born out of an abundant and glowing vitality, 
or the outcome of an overweening confidence in 
one's self — anyhow and everyhow, something tells 
me to-niaht I shall find him, and— write it lamer 
— Find him ! Find him ! Even the words are in- 
spiring. I feel more happy. Have I uttered a 
prayer? I shall sleep calmly to-night." 

There is nothing in this whole terrible journey 
so touching, and revealing so much, as this extract 
from his journal does. It shows that he is human, 
and yet far above common human weakness. 
Beset with difficulties, his only white companion 
dead or about to be left behind, the Arabs them- 
selves and the natives telling- him he cannot go on, 
left all alone in a hostile country, his men desert- 
ing him, he pauses and ponders. To make all 
these outer conditions darker, he is smitten down 
with fever that saps the energies, unnerves the 



TRIUMPH. j ^g 

heart and fills the imagination with gloomy fore- 
bodings, and makes the soul sigh for rest. It is 
the lowest pit of despondency into which a man 
may be cast. He feels it, and all alone, fever-worn 
and sad, he surveys the prospect before him. 
There is not a single soul on which to lean — not a 
sympathizing heart to turn to while fever is burn- 
ing up his brain, and night, moonless and starless, 
is settling down around him. He would be less 
than human not to feel the desolation of his posi- 
tion, and for a moment to sink under this accumu- 
lation of disastrous circumstances. He does feel 
how utterly hopeless and sad is his condition ; and 
all through the first part of this entry in his jour- 
nal, there is something that sounds like a mourn- 
ful refrain ; yet at its close, out of his gloomy 
surroundings, up from his feverish bed speaks the 
brave heart in trumpet tones, showing the indomi- 
table will that nothing can break, crying out of the 
all-enveloping gloom, " no living man or living men 
shall stop me — only death can prevent me." There 
spoke one of the few great natures God has made. 
The closing words of that entry in his journal ring 
like a bugle- note from his sick-bed, and foretell his 
triumph. 

But, at last, they were off. Shaw, the last white 
man left to Stanley, had been sick and apparently 
indifferent whether he lived or died ; but all after 
a short march became enlivened, and things looked 
more promising. But Stanley was soon again 



T 40 1N THE WILDS 0F AFRICA. ' 

taken sick with the fever and the men began to be 
discouraged. Staggering from his sick-bed he 
found that twenty of his men had deserted. 
Aroused at this new danger he instantly dispatched 
twenty men after them, while he sent his faithful 
follower, Selim, to an Arab chief to borrow a long 
slave-chain. At night, the messengers returned 
with nine of the missing men. Stanley then told 
them that he had never used the slave-chain, but 
now he should on the first deserters. He had re- 
solved to go to Ujiji, where he believed Dr. Liv- 
ingstone was, and being so near the accomplish- 
ment of the mission he was sent on, he was ready 
to resort to any measures rather than fail. De- 
ferring the use of the chain at present, he started 
forward and encamped at Iresaka. In the morn- 
ing, two more men were missing. Irritated but 
determined, this resolute man halted, sent back for 
the fugitives, caught them, and when brought back, 
flogged them severely and chained them. Not- 
withstanding this severe treatment, the next morn- 
ing another man deserted, while to add to his 
perplexities and enhance the difficulties that sur- 
rounded him, a man who had accompanied him all 
the way from the coast asked to be discharged. 
Several others of the expedition were now taken 
sick and became unable to proceed ; and it seemed, 
notwithstanding the resolute will of the leader, 
that the expedition must break up. But fortu- 
nately, that evening men who had been in caravans 



SHAW LEFT. I4I 

to the coast entered the village where they were 
encamped with wondrous stories of what they had 
seen, which revived the spirits of all, and the next 
morning they started off, and after three hours' 
march through the forest came to Kieandu. Shaw, 
the last white man now left to him, between real 
and feigned sickness had become such a burden, 
that he determined to leave him behind, as the 
latter had often requested. 

That night, the poor wretch played on an old 
accordion "Home, Sweet Home," which, miserable 
as it was, stirred the depths of Stanley's heart for 
the man now about to be left alone amid Arabs and 
natives in the most desperate crisis of the under- 
taking. But it could not be helped. Speed was 
everything on this new route, or Mirambo would 
close it also. So on the morning of the 27th he 
ordered the horn to sound "get ready," and Shaw 
being sent back to Kwihara, Stanley set off on 
his southern unknown route to Ujiji and en- 
tered the dark forests and pressed rapidly for- 
ward. In seven hours he reached the village of 
Ugfunda which numbers two thousand souls. It was 
well fortified against the robber, Mirambo. Around 
their principal village, some three thousand square 
acres were under cultivation, giving them not only 
all the provisions they wanted for their own use, 
but also enough for passing caravans. They 
could also furnish carriers for those in want of 
them. On the 28th, they arrived at a small vil- 



j 42 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

lage well supplied with corn, and the next day 
reached Kikura a place impregnated with the most 
deadly of African fevers. Over desert plains, 
now sheering on one side to avoid the corpse of a 
man dead from small-pox, the scourge of Africa, 
and again stumbling on a skeleton, the caravan 
kept on till they came to the cultivated fields of 
Manyara. 

A wilderness one hundred and thirty-five miles 
in extent stretched out before them from this 
place, and Stanley was inclined to be very con- 
ciliatory toward the chief of the village, in order 
to get provisions for the long and desperate march 
before him But the chief was very sullen and 
wholly indifferent to the presents the white man 
offered him. With adroit diplomacy, Stanley sent 
to him some magnificent royal cloths, which so 
mollified the chief that abundant provisions were 
soon sent in, followed by the chief himself with 
fifty warriors bearing gifts quite equal to those 
which Stanley sent him, and they entered the tent 
of the first white man they had ever seen. Look- 
ing at him for some time in silent surprise, the 
chiefs burst into an incontrollable fit of laughter, 
accompanied with snapping their fingers. But 
when they were shown the sixteen-shooters and 
revolvers their astonishment knew no bounds, 
while the double-barreled guns, heavily charged, 
made them jump to their feet with alarm, fol- 
lowed by convulsions of laughter. Stanley then 



THE HUNTER'S PARADISE. 



1 43 



showed them his chest of medicine, and finally 
gave them a dose in the form of brandy. They 
tasted it, making wry faces, when he produced a 
bottle of concentrated ammonia, saying that it 
was for snake bites. One of the chiefs asked for 
some of it. It was suddenly presented to his nose, 
when his features underwent such indescribable 
contortions that the other chiefs burst into con- 
vulsions of laughter, clapped their hands, pinched 
each other and went through all sorts of ludicrous 
gesticulations. When the chief recovered him- 
self, the tears in the meanwhile rolling down his 
cheeks, he laughed and simply said, u strong medi- 
cine." The others then took a sniff and went off 
into paroxysms of laughter. 

Wednesday, October 4th, found them traveling 
toward the Gombe River. They had hardly left 
the waving corn-fields, when they came in sight 
of a large herd of zebras. Passing on, the open 
forest resembled a magnificent park, filled with 
buffalo, zebra, giraffe, antelope and other tropical 
animals, while the scenery on every side was en- 
trancing. These noble animals, coursing in their 
wild freedom through those grand, primeval for- 
ests, presented a magnificent sight. Stanley, 
thoroughly aroused, crept back to his camp, which 
had been pitched on the Gombe River, and pre- 
pared for a right royal hunt. He says: 

" Here, at last, was the hunter's paradise ! How 
petty and insignificant appeared my hunts after 



j aa IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

small antelope and wild boar; what a foolish waste 
of energies, those long walks through damp 
grasses and thorny jungles. Did I not well re- 
member my first bitter experience in African 
jungles, when in the maritime region ? But this 
— where is the nobleman's park that can match 
this scene? Here is a soft, velvety expanse of 
young grass, grateful shade under close, spread- 
ing clumps, herds of large and varied game 
browsing within easy rifle-shot. Surely I must feel 
amply compensated now for the long southern 
detour I have made, when such a prospect as this 
opens to the view! No thorny jungles and rank- 
smelling swamps are to daunt the hunter, and to 
sicken his aspirations after true sport. No hunter 
could aspire after a nobler field to display his 
prowess. 

" Having settled the position of the camp, which 
overlooked one of the pools found in the depres- 
sion of the Gombe Creek, I took my double-bar- 
reled smooth bore, and sauntered off" to the park- 
land. Emerging from behind a clump, three fine, 
plump spring-bok were seen browsing on the 
young grass just within one hundred yards. I 
knelt down and fired ; one unfortunate antelope 
bounded forward instinctively and fell dead. Its 
companions sprang high into the air, taking 
leaps about twelve feet in length, as if they were 
quadrupeds practicing gymnastics, and away they 
vanished, rising up like India-rubber balls, until a 



ON THE HUNT. j *y 

knoll hid them from view. My success was hailed 
with loud shouts by the soldiers, who came run- 
ning out from the camp as soon as they heard the 
reverberation of the gun, and my gun-bearer had 
his knife at the throat of the beast, uttering a fer- 
vent 'Bismillah' as he almost severed the head 
from the body. 

" Hunters were now directed to proceed east 
and north to procure meat, because in each cara- 
van it generally happens that there are fundi 
whose special trade it is to hunt for meat for the 
camp. Some of these are experts in stalking, but 
often find themselves in dangerous positions, 
owing to the near approach necessary before they 
can fire their most inaccurate weapons with any 
certainty. 

"After luncheon, consisting of spring-bok steak, 
hot corn-cake and a cup of Mocha coffee, I strolled 
toward the southwest, accompanied by Kalulu and 
Majwara, two boy gun-bearers. The tiny per- 
pusilla started up like rabbits from me as I stole 
along through the underbrush ; the honey-bird 
hopped from tree to tree chirping its call, as if it 
thought I was seeking the little sweet treasure, the 
hiding-place of which it only knew ; but, no ! I 
neither desired perpusilla nor the honey. I was 
on the search for something great this day. Keen- 
eyed fish-eagles and bustards poised on trees 
above the sinuous Gombe thought, and probably 
with good reason, that I was after them, judging by 



148 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



the ready flight with which both species disap- 
peared as they sighted my approach. Ah, no ! 
nothing but hartbeest, zebra, giraffe, eland and 
buffalo this day. 

"After following the Gombe's course for about 
a mile, delighting my eyes with long looks at the 
broad and lengthy reaches of water, to which I 
was so long a stranger, I came upon a scene which 
delighted the innermost recesses of my soul ; five, 
six, seven, eight, ten zebras switching their beauti- 
ful striped bodies, and biting one another, within 
about one hundred and fifty yards. The scene was 
so pretty, so romantic, never did I so thoroughly 
realize that I was in Central Africa. I felt momen- 
tarily proud that I owned such a vast dominion, 
inhabited by such noble beasts. Here I possessed, 
within reach of a leaden ball, any one I chose of 
the beautiful animals, the pride of the African 
forests. It was at my option to shoot any one of 
them. Mine they were, without money and with- 
out price ; yet, knowing this, twice I dropped my 
rifle, loath to wound the royal beasts, but — crack ! 
and a royal one was on his back, battling the air 
with his legs. Ah, it was such a pity! but hasten, 
draw the keen, sharp- edged knife across the 
beautiful stripes which fold around the throat, and 
— what an ugly gash ! it is done, and I have a 
superb animal at my feet. Hurrah ! I shall taste 
of Ukonongo zebra to-night. 

" I thought a spring-bok and zebra enough for 



CROCODILES. j.g 

one day's sport, especially after a long march. 
The Gombe, a long stretch of deep water, winding 
in and out of green groves, calm, placid, with lotus 
leaves resting lightly on its surface, all pretty, pic- 
turesque, peaceful as a summer's dream, looked 
very inviting for a bath. I sought out the most 
shady spot under a wide-spreading mimosa, from 
which the ground sloped smooth as a lawn to the 
still, clear water. I ventured to undress, and had 
already stepped to my ankles in the water, and 
had brought my hands together for a glorious 
dive, when my attention was attracted by an enor- 
mously long body which shot into view, occupying 
the spot beneath the surface which I was about to 
explore by a ' header.' Great heavens, it was a 
crocodile ! I sprang back instinctively, and this 
proved my salvation, for the monster turned away 
with the most disappointed look, and I was left to 
congratulate myself upon my narrow escape from 
his jaws, and to register a vow never to be tempted 
again by the treacherous calm of an African river." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE END APPROACHES. 



^ ¥ ^HE following extract from Stanley's jour- 
nal, written up that night after his hunting 

-*- tour, shows that this strong, determined, 
fearless man was not merely a courageous lion, 
but that he possessed also the eye of an artist and 
the soul of a poet. With a few strokes of his pen, 
he sketches a picture on the banks of the forest- 
lined river, full of life and beauty : 

" The adventures of the day were over ; the 
azure of the sky had changed to a deep gray ; the 
moon was appearing just over the trees ; the water 
of the Gombe was like a silver belt ; hoarse frogs 
bellowed their notes loudly by the margin of the 
creek ; the fish-eagles uttered their dirge-like cries 
as they were perched high on the tallest trees ; 
elands snorted their warning to the herd in the 
forest; stealthy forms of the carnivora stole through 
the dark woods outside of our camp. Within the 
high inclosure of bush and thorn which we had 
raised about our camp, all was jollity, laughter and 
radiant, genial comfort. Around every camp-fire, 
dark forms of men were seen squatted : one man 
gnawed at a luscious bone ; another sucked the 
rich marrow in a zebra's leg bone ; another turned 

(150) 



MUTINOUS CONDUCT. j ,- j 

the stick, garnished with huge cabobs, to the bright 
blaze ; another held a large rib over a flame ; there 
were others busy stirring, industriously, great black 
potfuls of ugali, and watching anxiously the meat 
simmering, and the soup bubbling, while the fire- 
light flickered and danced bravely, and cast a 
bright glow over the naked forms of the men, and 
gave a crimson tinee to the tall tent that rose in 
the centre of the camp, like a temple sacred to 
some mysterious god ; the fires cast their reflections 
upon the massive arms of the trees, as they 
branched over our camp ; and, in the dark gloom 
of their foliage, the most fantastic shadows were 
visible. Altogether, it was a wild, romantic and 
impressive scene." 

They halted here for two days, the men hunting 
and gormandizing. Like all animals, after gorging 
themselves they did not want to move, and when 
on the 7th of October Stanley ordered the caravan 
to be put in motion, the men refused to stir. Stan- 
ley at once walked swiftly toward them with his 
double-barreled gun, loaded with buck-shot, in his 
hand. As he did so he saw the men seize their 
guns. He, however, kept resolutely on till within 
thirty yards of two men, whose heads were peer- 
ing above an ant-hill, their guns pointed across the 
road, — then suddenly halting, he took deliberate 
aim at them, determined come what would to blow 
out their brains. One of them, a giant, named 
Azmani, instantly brought up his gun with his finger 



j r 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

on the trigger. " Drop that gun or you are a dead 
man," shouted Stanley. They obeyed and came 
forward, but he saw that murder was in Azmani's 
eyes. The other man, at the second order, laid 
down his gun and, with a blow from Stanley that 
sent him reeling away, sneaked off. But the 
giant, Azmani, refused to obey, and Stanley aiming 
his piece at his head and touching the trigger was 
about to fire. The former quickly lifted his gun 
up to his shoulder to shoot. In another second 
he would have fallen dead at Stanley's feet. At 
this moment an Arab, who had approached from 
behind, struck up the wretch's gun and exclaimed, 
" Man, how dare you point your gun at the master ?" 
This saved his life, and perhaps Stanley's also. 
It required nerves of iron in a man thus to stand 
up all alone in the heart of an African forest sur- 
rounded by savages and defy them all, and cow 
them all. But the trouble was over, peace was 
concluded, and the men with one accord agreed to 
go on. The two instigators of this mutiny were 
Bombay and a savage, named Ambari. Snatching 
up a spear Stanley immediately gave the former a 
terrible pounding with the handle. Then turning 
on the latter, who stood looking on with a mocking 
face, he administered the same punishment to him, 
after which he put them both in chains. 

For the next fourteen days, nothing remark- 
able occurred in the march, which had been in a 
southwesterly direction. Near a place called Mrera, 



NE WS OF A WHITE MAN. j k - 

Stanley, for the first time saw a herd of wild ele- 
phants, and was deeply impressed with their 
lordly appearance. Here Selim was taken sick 
and the caravan halted for three days, Stanley 
spending the interval in mending his shoes. 

He now had four districts to traverse, which 
would occupy him twenty-five days. Taking a 
northwesterly route having, as he thought, got 
around the country of Mirambo, he pushed for- 
ward with all speed. Buffaloes, leopards and 
lions were encountered; the country was diversi- 
fied, and many of the petty chiefs grasping and 
unfriendly, so that it was a constant, long, weari- 
some fight with obstacles from the beginning to 
the end of each week. But, on November 3d, 
a caravan of eighty came into Stanley's camp 
from the westward. The latter asked the news. 
They replied that a white man had just arrived at 
Ujiji. This was startling news indeed. 

"A white man !" exclaimed Stanley. 

"Yes, a white man." 

"How is he dressed?" 

"Like the master," pointing to him. 

" Is he young or old?" 

"He is old, with white hair on his face; and he 
is sick." 

"Where has he come from?" was the next 
anxious inquiry. 

"From a very far country, away beyond Uguh- 
ha." 



j ^4 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

"And is he now stopping at Ujiji?" 
" Yes, we left him there eight days ago." 
" How long is he going to stay there ?" 
"Don't know." 

" Was he ever there before ?" 
" Yes ; he went away a long time ago." 
Stanley gave a shout of exultation, exclaiming: 
" It is Livingstone !" 

Then came the thought, it may be some other 
man. Perhaps it is Baker, who has worked his 
way in there before me. It was a crushing thought, 
that after all his sufferings, and sickness, and toils, 
he should have been anticipated, and that there 
was now nothing left for him but to march back 
again. " No !" he exclaimed to himself: " Baker 
has no white hair on his face." But he could now 
wait no longer, and turning to his men, he asked 
them if they were willing to march to Ujiji with- 
out a single halt. If they were, he would, on 
their arrival, present each two doti of cloth. They 
all shouted, " Yes !" Stanley jots down: "I was 
madly rejoiced, intensely eager to resolve the 
burning question, ' Is it Dr. Livingstone ?' God 
grant me patience ; but I do wish there was a 
railroad, or at least, horses, in this country. With 
a horse I could reach him in twelve hours." 

But new dangers confronted him. The chiefs 
became more exhorbitant in their demands and 
more hostile in their demonstrations, and but for 
Stanley's eagerness to get on, he would more than 



HASTENING TO UJIJI. j r c 

once have fought his way through some of those 
pertinacious tribes. But his patience, at last, 
gave out, for he was told after he had settled the 
last tribute that there were five more chiefs ahead 
who would exact tribute. This would beggar him, 
and he asked two natives if there was no way of 
evading the next chief, named Wahha. 

" This rather astonished them at first, and they 
declared it to be impossible; but finally, after be- 
ing pressed, they replied that one of their number 
should guide us at midnight, or a little after, into 
the jungle which grew on the frontiers of Uhha 
and Uvinza. By keeping a direct west course 
through this jungle until we came to Ukavanga, 
we might be enabled — we were told — to travel 
through Uhha without further trouble. If I were 
willing to pay the guide twelve doti, and if I were 
able to impose silence on my people while passing 
through the sleeping village, the guide was posi- 
tive I could reach Ujiji without paying another 
doti. It is needless to add that I accepted the 
proffered assistance at such a price with joy. 

" But there was much to be done. Provisions 
were to be purchased, sufficient to last four days, 
for the tramp through the jungle and men were at 
once sent with cloth to purchase grain at any price. 
Fortune favored us, and before 8 p. m. we had 
enough for six days. 

" November 7th. — I did not go to sleep at all 
last night, but a little after midnight, as the moon 



156 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



was beginning to show itself, by gangs of four the 
men stole quietly out of the village ; and by 3 a. 
m. the entire expedition was outside the bonna 
and not the slightest alarm had been made. After 
whistling to the new guide, the expedition began 
to move in a southern direction along the right 
bank of the Kanenzi River. After an hour's march 
in this direction, we struck west across the grassy 
plain, and maintained it, despite the obstacles we 
encountered which were sore enough to naked 
men. The bright moon lighted our path ; dark 
clouds now and then cast immense long shadows 
over the deserted and silent plain, and the moon- 
beams were almost obscured, and at such times 
our. position seemed awful — 

" < Till the moon, 
Rising in clouded majesty, at length 
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, 
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.' 

" Bravely toiled the men, without murmur, 
though their legs were bleeding from the cruel 
grass. 'Ambrosial morn ' at last appeared, with 
all its beautiful and lovely features. Heaven was 
born anew to us, with comforting omens and 
cheery promise. The men, though fatigued at 
the unusual travel, sped forward with quicker pace 
as daylight broke, until at 8 a. m. we sighted the 
swift Rusugi River, where a halt was ordered in 
a clump of jungle for breakfast and rest. Both 
banks of the river were alive with buffalo, eland 



A SCREAMING WOMAN. j c y 

and antelope, but though the sight was very tempt- 
ing, we did not fire, because we dared not. The 
report of a gun would have alarmed the whole 
country. I preferred my coffee, and the content- 
ment which my mind experienced at our success. 
"An hour after we had rested, some natives car- 
rying salt from the Malagarazi were seen coming 
up the right bank of the river. When abreast of 
our hiding-place they detected us, and dropping 
their salt-bags, they took to their heels at once, 
shouting out as they ran, to alarm some villages 
that appeared some four miles north of us. The 
men were immediately ordered to take up their 
loads, and in a few minutes we had crossed the 
Rusugi, and were making direct for a bamboo 
jungle that appeared in our front. Almost as 
soon as we entered, a weak-brained woman raised 
a series of piercing yells. The men were appalled 
at this noisy demonstration, which would call down 
upon our heads the vengeance of the Wahha for 
evading the tribute, to which they thought them- 
selves entitled. In half an hour we should have 
hundreds of howling savages about us in the 
jungle, and probably a general massacre would 
ensue. The woman screamed fearfully again and 
again, for no cause whatever. Some of the men, 
with the instinct of self-preservation, at once 
dropped their bales and loads and vanished into 
the jungle. The guide came rushing back to me, 
Imploring me to stop her noise. The woman's 



158 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



husband, livid with rage and fear, drew his sword 
and asked permission to cut her head off at once. 
Had I given the least signal, the woman had paid 
with her life for her folly. I attempted to hush 
her cries by putting my hand over her mouth, but 
she violently wrestled with me, and continued her 
cries worse than ever. There remained nothing 
else for me to do but to try the virtue of my whip 
over her shoulders. I asked her to desist after 
the first blow. 'No!' She continued her insane 
cries with increased force and volume. Again my 
whip descended on her shoulders. ' No, no, no.' 
Another blow. ' Will you hush ?' * No, no, no,' 
louder and louder she cried, and faster and faster 
I showered the blows for the taming of this shrew. 
However, seeing I was as determined to flog as 
she was to cry, she desisted before the tenth blow 
and became silent. A cloth was folded over her 
mouth, and her arms were tied behind her ; and in 
a few moments, the runaways having returned to 
their duty, the expedition moved forward again 
with redoubled pace." 

That night they encamped at Lake Musunya, 
which swarmed with hippopotami. No tent nor 
hut was raised, nor fire kindled, and Stanley lay 
down with his rifle slung over his shoulders, ready 
to act on a moment's notice. Before daylight they 
were off again, and at early dawn emerged from 
the jungle and stretched rapidly across a naked 
plain. Reaching the Rugufa River, they halted 



A NARROW ESCAPE. j ,-g 

in a deep shade, when suddenly Stanley heard a 
sound like distant thunder. Asking one of his 
men if it were thunder, the latter replied no, that 
it was the noise made by the waves of Tanganika 
breaking into the caverns on its shore. Was he, 
indeed, so near this great inland sea, of which Ujiji 
was the chief harbor ? 

Pressing on three hours longer they encamped 
in the forest. Two hours before daylight they 
again set out, the guide promising that by next 
morning they should be clear of the hostile dis- 
trict. On this Stanley exclaims, " Patience, my 
soul ! A few hours more and then the end of all 
this will be known. I shall be face to face with 
that white man with the white beard on his face, 
whoever he may be." Before daylight they started 
again, and emerging from the forest on to the 
high road, the guides, thinking they had passed 
the last village of the hostile tribe, set up a shout, 
but soon, to their horror, came plump upon its 
outskirts. Fate seemed about to desert him at 
the last moment, for if the village was roused he 
was a doomed man. Keeping concealed amid 
the trees, Stanley ordered the goats to be killed 
lest their bleating should lead to discovery, the 
chickens to be killed also, and then they plunged 
into the jungle, Stanley being the last man to fol- 
low. It was a narrow escape. After an half- 
hour's march, finding they were not pursued, they 
again took to the road. One more night in the 



j 5q IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

encampment and then the end would come. Next 
morning they pushed on with redoubled speed, 
and in two hours, from the top of a mountain 
Stanley, with bounding heart, beheld Lake Tan- 
ganika, a vast expanse of burnished silver, with 
dark mountains around it and the blue sky above 
it. " Hurrah," shouted Stanley, and the natives 
took up the shout, till the hills and forest rang 
with their exultant cries. The long struggle was 
near over ; the goal toward which he had been so 
long straining was almost won. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

STANLEY MEETS LIVINGSTONE. 

STANLEY'S excitement at this supreme 
moment of his life can never be described 
or even imagined. When he started from 
Zanzibar, he knew he had thrown the dice which 
were to fix his fate. Successful, and his fame was 
secure, while failure meant death; and all the 
chances were against him. How much he had 
taken upon himself no one but he knew; into what 
gloomy gulfs he had looked before he started, he 
alone was conscious. Of the risks he ran, of the 
narrow escapes he had made, of the toils and 
sufferings he had endured, he alone could form an 
estimate. With the accumulation of difficulties 
and the increasing darkness of his prospects, the 
one great object of his mission had increased in 
importance, till great though it was, it became 
unnaturally magnified so that, at last, it filled all 
his vision, and became the one, the great, the only 
object in life worth pursuing. For it he had risked 
so much, toiled so long and suffered so terribly, 
that the whole world, with all its interests, was 
secondary to it. Hope had given way to disap- 
pointment and disappointment yielded to despair 
so often, that his strong nature had got keyed up 
ii (161) 



j 5 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

to a dangerous pitch. But now the reward was 
near. Balboa, when alone he ascended the summit 
that was to give him a sight of the great Pacific 
Ocean, was not more intensely excited than was 
Stanley when he labored up the steep mountain 
that should give him a view of the Tanganika. 

The joy, the exultation of that moment, out- 
balanced a life of common happiness. It was a 
feeling that lifts the soul into a region where our 
common human nature never goes, and it becomes 
a memory that influences and shapes the character 
forever. Such a moment of ecstasy — of perfect 
satisfaction — of exultant, triumphant feeling that 
asks nothing better — that brings perfect rest with 
the highest exaltation, can happen to any man but 
once in a life-time. To attempt to give any de- 
scription of this culmination of all his effort, and 
longing, and ambition, except in his own words, 
would be not only an act of injustice to him, but 
to the reader. 

The descent to Ujiji and the interview with Liv- 
ingstone is full of dramatic interest and the de- 
scription of it should not be made by a third party, 
for to attempt to improve on it would be presump- 
tion and would end only in failure. We, therefore, 
give it in Mr. Stanley's own words, that glow with 
vivid life from beginning to end, and this shall be 
his chapter: 

"We are descending the western slope of the 
mountain, with the valley of the Linche before us. 



uyiyi in sight. j 5 ^ 

Something like an hour before noon we have 
gained the thick matite brake, which grows on both 
banks of the river; we wade through the clear 
stream, arrive on the other side, emerge out of the 
brake, and the gardens of the Wajiji are around 
us — a perfect marvel of vegetable wealth. Details 
escape my hasty and partial observation. I am 
almost overpowered with my own emotion. I 
notice the graceful palms, neat plats, green with 
vegetable plants, and small villages, surrounded 
with frail fences of the matite cane. 

" We push on rapidly, lest the news of our 
coming might reach the people of Bunder Ujiji 
before we come in sight and are ready for them. 
We halt at a little brook, then ascend the long 
slope of a naked ridge, the very last of the my- 
riads we have crossed. This alone prevents us 
from seeing the lake in all its vastness. We ar- 
rive at the summit, travel across and arrive at its 
western rim, and — pause, reader — the port of 
Ujiji is below us, embowered in the palms, only 
five hundred yards from us. At this grand mo- 
ment we do not think of the hundreds of miles 
we have marched, of the hundreds of hills we 
have ascended and descended, of the many forests 
we have traversed, of the jungles and thickets 
that annoyed us, of the fervid salt plains that 
blistered our feet, of the hot suns that scorched 
us, nor the dangers and difficulties now happily 
surmounted. At last the sublime hour has ar- 



1 64 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



rived ! our dreams, our hopes, our anticipations 
are about to be realized. Our hearts and our 
feelings are with our eyes, as we peer into the 
palms and try to make out in which hut or house 
lives the white man, with the gray beard, we heard 
about on the Malagarazi. 

'" Unfurl the flags and load the guns/ 

"'Ay, Wallah, ay, Wallah, bana!' responded 
the men, eagerly. 

"' One — two — three — fire/ 

"A volley from nearly fifty guns roars like a 
salute from a battery of artillery; we shall note 
its effect, presently, on the peaceful-looking village 
below. 

"'Now, Kirangozi, hold the white man's flag up 
high, and let the Zanzibar flag bring up the rear. 
And you men keep close together, and keep firing 
until we halt in the market-place, or before the 
white man's house. You have said to me often 
that you could smell the fish of the Tanganika. 
I can smell the fish of the Tanganika now. There 
are fish, and beer, and a long rest awaiting for 
you. March !' 

" Before we had gone one hundred yards our 
repeated volleys had the desired effect. We had 
awakened Ujiji to the fact that a caravan was 
coming, and the people were witnessed running 
up in hundreds to meet us. The mere sight of 
the flags informed every one immediately that we 
were a caravan, but the American flag, borne 



THE VILLAGE ENTERED. 



165 



aloft by the gigantic Asmani, whose face was one 
broad smile on this day, rather staggered them 
at first. However, many of the people who now 
approached us remembered the flag. They had 
seen it float above the American consulate, and 
from the mast-heads of many a ship in the har- 
bor of Zanzibar, and they were soon heard wel- 
coming the beautiful flag with cries of ' Bindera 
Kisungu !'■ — a white man's flag ! ' Bindera Meri- 
cani !' — the American flag ! These cries resounded 
on all sides. 

"Then we were surrounded by them — by 
Wajiji, Wanyamzi, Wangwana, Warundi, Waguh- 
ha, Wamanyuema and Arabs, and were almost 
deafended with the shout of ' Yambo, yambo, 
bona ! Yambo bona, Yambo bona, Yambo bona !' 
To all and each of my men the welcome was given. 

"We were now about three hundred yards 
from the village of Ujiji, and the crowds are dense 
about me. Suddenly I hear a voice on my right 
say : ' Good morning, sir !' 

" Startled at hearing this greeting in the midst 
of such a crowd of black people, I turn sharply 
around in search of the man, and see him at my 
side with the blackest of faces, but animated and 
joyous — a man dressed in a long white shirt, 
with a turban of American sheeting around his 
woolly head, and I ask : ' Who the mischief are 



you ?' 



I am Susi, the servant of Dr. Livingstone,' 



j 55 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

said he, smiling and showing a gleaming row of 
teeth. 

" ' What ! is Dr. Livingstone here ?' 

"'Yes, sir.' 

"' In this village ?' 

"'Yes, sir.' 

"'Are you sure ?' 

"'Sure, sure, sir. Why I just left him.' 

"'Good-morning, sir,' said another voice. 

"'Hallo,' said I, 'is this another one?' 

"'Yes, sir.' 

'"Well, what is. your name ?' 

"' My name is Chumah, sir.' 

'"What are you, Chumah, the friend of Weko- 
tani ?' 

"'Yes, sir.' 

" ' And is the doctor well ?' 

"' Not very well, sir.' 

" ' Where has he been so long ? 

"' In Manyuema.' 

" ' Now you, Susi, run and tell the doctor I am 
coming.' 

'"Yes, sir,' and off he darted like a madman. 

" By this time we were within two hundred 
yards of the village, and the multitude was getting 
denser, and almost preventing our march. Flags 
and streamers were out ; Arabs and Wangwana 
were pushing their way through the natives in 
order to greet us, for according to their account 
we belonged to them. But the great wonder of 



THE DOCTOR AT HAND. 



167 



all was, ' How did you come from Unyanyem- 
be?' 

" Soon Susi came running back and asked me 
my name ; he had told the doctor that I was com- 
ing, but the doctor was too surprised to believe 
him, and when the doctor asked him my name 
Susi was rather staggered. 

" But during Susi's absence the news had been 
conveyed to the doctor that it was surely a white 
man that was coming, whose guns, were firing and 
whose flag could be seen ; and the great Arab 
magnates of Ujiji — Mohammed bin Sali, Sayd bin 
Majid, Abid bin Suliman, Mohammed bin Gharib 
and others — had gathered together before the doc- 
tor's house, and the doctor had come out on his ve- 
randa to discuss the matter and await my arrival. 

" In the meantime, the head of the expedition 
had halted and the Kirangozi were out of the 
ranks, holding the flag aloft, and Selim said to me, 
' I see the doctor, sir. Oh, what an old man ! 
He has got a white beard.' And I — what would 
I not have given for a bit of friendly wilderness 
where, unseen, I might vent my joy in some mad 
freak, such as idiotically biting my hand, turning 
a somersault, or slashing some trees, in order to 
allay those exciting feelings that were well-nigh 
uncontrollable. My heart beats fast, but I must 
not let my face betray my emotions, lest it shall 
detract from the dignity of a white man appear- 
ing under such extraordinary circumstances. 



j 5g IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

"So I did that which I thought was most digni- 
fied, I pushed back the crowds, and, passing from 
the rear, walked down a living avenue of people 
until I came in front of the semi-circle of Arabs, 
in front of which stood the white man with the 
gray beard. As I advanced slowly toward him I 
noticed he was pale, looked wearied, had a gray 
beard, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band 
around it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat and a 
pair of gray tweed trousers. I would have run to 
him, only I was a coward in such a mob — would 
have embraced him, only, he being an English- 
man, I did not know how he would receive me ; 
so I did what cowardice and false pride suggested 
was the best thing- — walked deliberately to him, 
took off my hat and said, ' Dr. Livingstone, I pre- 
sume?' 

" * Yes," said he, with a kind smile, lifting his 
hat slightly. 

" I replace my cap on my head/and he puts on 
his cap, and we both grasp hands, and then I say 
aloud : ' I thank God, doctor, I have been per- 
mitted to see you.' 

" He answered : ' I feel thankful I am here to 
welcome you.' 

"I turned to the Arabs, took off my hat to them 
in response to the saluting chorus of 'Yambos.' 
I receive, and the doctor introduces them to me by 
name. Then oblivious of the crowds, oblivious of 
the men who shared with me my dangers, we — 



THE LOST FO UND. l j 1 

Livingstone and I — turn our faces toward his 
tembe. He points to the veranda, or rather mud 
platform, under the broad over-hanging eaves ; he 
points to his own particular seat, which I see his 
age and experience in Africa have suggested, 
namely, a straw mat with a goat-skin over it, and 
another skin nailed against the wall to protect his 
back from contact with the cold mud. I protest 
against taking this seat, which so much more befits 
him than me, but the doctor will not yield: I must 
take it. 

"We are seated — the doctor and I — with our 
backs to the wall. The Arabs take seats on our 
left. More than a thousand natives are in our 
front, filling the whole square densely, indulging 
their curiosity and discussing the fact of two white 
men meeting at Ujiji — one just come from Manyu- 
ema, in the west, the other from Unyanyembe, in 
the east. 

"Conversation began. What about? I declare 
I have forgotten. Oh! we mutually asked ques- 
tions of one another, such as : 'How did you come 
here?' and 'Where have you been all this long 
time? the world has believed you to be dead.' 
Yes, that was the way it began; but whatever the 
doctor informed me, and that which I communi- 
cated to him, I cannot exactly report, for I found 
myself gazing at him, conning the wonderful man, 
at whose side I now sat in Central Africa. Every 
hair of his head and beard, every wrinkle of his 



172 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



face, the wanness of his features, and the slightly 
wearied look he wore, were all imparting intelli- 
gence to me — the knowledge I craved for so much 
ever since I heard the words, 'Take what you 
want, but find Livingstone.' What I saw was 
deeply interesting intelligence to me, and unvar- 
nished truths I was listening and reading at the 
same time. What did these dumb witnesses relate 
to me? 

"Oh, reader, had you been at my side that day 
at Ujiji, how eloquently could be told the nature 
of this man's work ! Had you been there but to 
see and hear! His lips gave me the details ; lips 
that never lie. I cannot repeat what he said; I 
was too much engrossed to take my note-book 
out and begin to stenograph his story. He had 
so much to say that he began at the end, seemingly 
oblivious of the fact that five or six years had to 
be accounted for. But his account was oozing 
out; it was growing fast into grand proportions — 
into a most marvelous history of deeds. 

" The Arabs rose up with a delicacy I approved, 
as if they intuitively knew that we ought to be left 
to ourselves. I sent Bombay with them to give 
them the news they also wanted so much to know 
about the affairs at Unyanyembe. Sayd bin Majid 
was the father of the gallant young man whom I 
saw at Masange, and who fought with me at Zim- 
bizo, and who soon afterwards was killed by 
Mirambo's Ruga — Ruga in the forest of Wilyan- 



OPENING HIS MAIL. ! y ? 

kuru; and knowing I had been there, he earnestly 
desired to hear the tale of the fight; but they all 
had friends at Unyanyembe, and it was but natural 
that they should be anxious to hear of what con- 
cerned them. 

" After giving orders to Bombay and Asmani 
for the provisioning of the men of the expedition, 
I called 'Kaif-Halek,' or 'how do ye do,' and 
introduced him to Dr. Livingstone as one of the 
soldiers in charge of certain goods left at Unyan- 
yembe, whom I had compelled to accompany me 
to Ujiji that he might deliver in person to his 
master, the letter-bag he had been intrusted with 
by Dr. Kirk. 

"This was the famous letter-bag marked 'Nov. 
ist, 1 8 70/ which was now delivered into the doctor's 
hands, three hundred and sixty-five days after it 
left Zanzibar! How long, I wonder, had it re- 
mained at Unyanyembe, had I not been dispatched 
into Central Africa in search of the great traveler? 

" The doctor kept the letter-bag on his knee, 
then, presently, opened it, looked at the letters 
contained there and read one or two of his chil- 
dren's letters, his face, in the meanwhile, lighting 
up. 

" He asked me to tell him the news. ' No, doc- 
tor,' said I, ' read your letters first, which, I am 
sure, you must be impatient to read.' 

"'Ah,' said he, 'I have waited years for letters, 
and I have been taught patience. I can surely 



j j a IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

afford to wait a few hours longer. No ; tell me 
the general news ; how is the world getting 
along ?' 

"'You probably know much already. Do you 
know that the Suez Canal is a fact — is opened 
and a regular trade carried on between Europe 
and India through it ?' 

" ' I did not hear about the opening of it. Well, 
that is grand news ! What else ?' 

" Shortly I found myself enacting the part of an 
annual periodical to him. There was no need of 
exaggeration — of any penny-a-line news, or of 
any sensationalism. The world had witnessed 
and experienced much the last few years. The 
Pacific Railroad had been completed ; Grant had 
been elected President of the United States ; 
Egypt had been flooded with savans ; the Cretan 
rebellion had terminated ; a Spanish revolution 
had driven Isabella from the throne of Spain, and 
a regent had been appointed ; General Prim was 
assassinated ; a Castelar had electrified Europe 
with his advanced ideas upon the liberty of wor- 
ship ; Prussia had humbled Denmark and annexed 
Schleswigf-Holstein, and her armies were now 
around Paris ; the ' Man of Destiny ' was a pris- 
oner at Wilhelmshohe ; the queen of fashion and 
the empress of the French was a fugitive ; and the 
child born in the purple had lost forever the im- 
perial crown intended for its head ; the Napoleon 
dynasty was extinguished by the Prussians, Bis- 



TALKING AND EATING. jjr- 

marck and Von Moltke, and France, the proud 
empire, was humbled to the dust. 

" What could a man have exaggerated of these 
facts ? What a budget of news it was to one who 
had emerged from the depths of the primeval 
forests of Manyuema ! The reflection of the daf- 
zling light of civilization was cast on him while 
Livingstone was thus listening in wonder to one 
of the most exciting passages of history ever re- 
peated. How the puny deeds of barbarism paled 
before these ! Who could tell under what new 
phases of uneasy life Europe was laboring even 
then, while we two of her lonely children rehearsed 
the tale of her late woes and glories ? More 
worthily, perhaps, had the tongue of a lyric De- 
modocus recounted them ; but in the absence of 
the poet, the newspaper correspondent performed 
his part as well and truthfully as he could. 

" Not long after the Arabs had departed, a 
dishful of hot hashed-meat cakes was sent to us 
by Sayd bin Majid, and a curried chicken was 
received from Mohammed bin Sali, and Moeni 
Kheri sent a dishful of stewed goat meat and rice ; 
and thus presents of food came in succession, and 
as fast as they were brought we set to. I had a 
healthy, stubborn digestion, the exercise I had 
taken had put it in prime order, but Livingstone 
— he had been complaining that he had no appe- 
tite, that his stomach refused everything but a cup 
of tea now and then — he ate also — ate like a vigor- 



176 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



ous, hungry man ; and as he vied with me in de- 
molishing the pancakes, he kept repeating, ' You 
have brought me new life.' 

" ' Oh, by George,' I said, ' I have forgotten 
something. Hasten, Selim, and bring that bottle; 
you know which; and bring me the silver goblets. 
I brought this bottle on purpose for this event, 
which I hoped would come to pass, though often 
it seemed useless to expect it.' 

" Selim knew where the bottle was, and he soon 
returned with it — a bottle of Sillery champagne; 
and, handing the doctor a silver goblet brimful of 
the exhilarating wine, and pouring a small quantity 
into my own, I said: 'Dr. Livingstone, to your 
very good health, sir.' 

"'And to yours,' he responded. 

"And the champagne I had treasured for this 
happy meeting was drank with hearty good wishes 
to each other. 

" But we kept on talking and talking, and pre- 
pared food was brought to us all that afternoon, 
and we kept on eating every time it was brought 
until I had eaten even to repletion, and the 
doctor was obliged to confess that he had eaten 
enough. Still, Halimah, the female cook of the 
doctor's establishment, was in a state of the 
greatest excitement. She had been protruding 
her head out of the cook-house, to make sure that 
there were really two white men sitting down in 
the veranda, when there used to be only one, who 



A LONG TALK. jyy 

would not, because he could not, eat anything ; 
and she had been considerably exercised in her 
mind over this fact. She was afraid the doctor 
did not properly appreciate her culinary abilities ; 
but now she was amazed at the extraordinary 
quantity of food eaten, 'and she was in a state of 
delightful excitement. We could hear her tongue 
rolling off a tremendous volume of clatter to the 
wondering crowds who halted before the kitchen 
to hear the current of news with which she edified 
them. Poor, faithful soul. While we listen to the 
noise of her furious gossip, the doctor related her 
faithful services and the terrible anxiety she evinced 
when the guns first announced the arrival of 
another white man in Ujijr; how she had been fly- 
ing about in a state of the utmost excitement, from 
the kitchen into his presence, and out again into 
the square, asking all sorts of questions ; how she 
was in despair at the scantiness of the general 
larder and treasury of the strange household ; how 
she was anxious to make up for their poverty, by 
a grand appearance — to make up a sort of Bar- 
mecide feast to welcome the white man. 

" ' Why,' said she, ' is he not one of us ? Does 
he not bring plenty of cloth and beads ? Talk 
about the Arabs ! Who are they, that they should 
be compared to white men ? Arabs, indeed !' 

" The doctor and I conversed upon many things, 
especially upon his own immediate troubles, and 
his disappointment upon his arrival at Ujiji when 
12 



1 7 8 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



told that all his goods had been sold, and he was 
reduced to poverty. He had but twenty cloths or 
so left of the stock he had deposited with the man 
called sheriff, the half-caste, drunken tailor, who 
was sent by the British consul in charge of the 
goods. Besides which he had been suffering from 
an attack of the dysentery, and his condition was 
most deplorable. He was but little improved on 
this day, though he had eaten well, and already 
began to feel stronger and better. 

"This day, like all others, though big with happi- 
ness to me, at last, was fading away. We, sitting 
with our faces looking to the east, as Livingstone 
had been sitting for days preceding my arrival, 
noted the dark shadow which crept up above the 
grove of palms beyond the village, and above the 
rampart of mountains which we had crossed that 
day, now looming through the fast-approaching 
darkness; and we listened, with our hearts full of 
gratitude to the great Giver of Good and Dis- 
penser of all Happiness to the sonorous thunder 
of the surf of the Tanganika, and to the chorus 
which the night insects sang. Hours passed, and 
we were still sitting there with our minds busy 
upon the day's remarkable events, when I remem- 
bered that the venerable traveler had not yet read 
his letters. 

" ' Doctor/ I said, ' you had better read your 
letters. I will not keep you up any longer.' 

"'Yes,' he answered, 'it is getting late., and I 



AMBITION SA TISFIED. j y g 

will go and read my friends' letters. Good-night, 
and God bless you/ 

" ' Good-night, my dear doctor, and let me hope 
your news will be such as you desire.' ' 

Since the creation of the world there never has 
occurred such another interview. The feelings 
of Stanley that night, in the heart of Africa, can 
only be imagined. The strain had ended, the 
doubt and suspense were over — he had found 
Livingstone ! he had succeeded ; his most extrava- 
gant dreams had been realized ; his wildest am- 
bition was satisfied, and from that hour the 
adventurer, the newspaper correspondent, took 
his place among the great explorers of the world. 
But it was no stroke of luck, — it was the fitting 
reward of great risks and great endeavor. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Stanley's homeward march. 

REST and repose were now enjoyed to the 
full by Stanley. His long struggles, his 
doubts and fears, his painful anxiety were 
over, and the end toward which he had strained 
with such unflagging resolution, the most dis- 
heartening circumstances, and which at times 
seemed to recede the more as he pressed forward, 
was at last reached. The sweet repose, the calm 
satisfaction and enjoyment which always come 
with the consciousness of complete success, now 
filled his heart, and he felt as none can feel but 
he who has at last won a long and doubtful battle. 
It was complete rest, the entire fruition of his 
hopes ; and as he sat down there in the heart of 
Africa, beside Livingstone, he was doubtless for 
at least the first few days, the happiest man on 
the globe, and well he deserved to be. The goal 
was won, the prize secured, and for the time being 
his utmost desires were satisfied. Why should 
he not be happy? 

His intercourse with Livingstone for the next 
four months will be marked by him as the bright- 
est portion of his eventful life. Independent of 
all he had undergone to find this remarkable man, 

(i 80) 



SWEET CONVERSE. 



181 



the man himself enlisted all his sympathies and 
awakened his most extravagant admiration and 
purest love, and a more charming picture can 
hardly be conceived than these two men, walking 
at sunset along the beach of the wild and lonely 
lake of Tanganika, talking over the strange scenes 
and objects of their strange, new world, or recall- 
ing home and friends far away amid all the com- 
forts and luxuries of civilization. The man whom 
Stanley had at last found was almost as new and 
startling a revelation to him as the country in 
which he had found him. Simple, earnest, un- 
selfish — nay, unambitious, so far as personal fame 
was concerned, borne up in all his sufferings and 
trials by one great and noble purpose, and con- 
quering even savage hate by the power of good- 
ness alone, he was an object of the profoundest 
interest. And no greater eulogium on the innate 
goodness and nobleness of Stanley's nature could 
be given than he unconsciously bestowed on him- 
self by the deep attachment, nay, almost adoration, 
he expresses for this lonely, quiet, good man. He 
fastens to him at once, and casting off old preju- 
dices and rejecting all former criticisms of his 
character, he impulsively becomes his champion, 
and crowns him the prince of men. 

The talk between them at their first meeting in 
this far-off land, was long and pleasant, and when 
the good-night was given, it was with strange 
feelings that Stanley turned into his allotted sleep- 



182 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



ing place in a regular bed. After all the toils and 
almost unnatural excitement of the day, he soon 
sank into profound slumber. The next morning 
he awoke with a start, and looked about him for 
a moment in a dazed way. He was not on the 
ground, but in a bed ; a roof, not a tent, was 
above him, while not a sound broke the stillness 
save the steady, monotonous roar of the surf beat- 
ing on the shore. As he lay and listened, strange 
thoughts and varied emotions chased each other 
in rapid succession through his heart. At length 
he arose and dressed himself, intending before 
breakfast to take a stroll along the shore of the 
lake. But the doctor was up before him and met 
him with a cordial " Good-morning," and the hope 
that he had rested well. 

Livingstone had sat up late reading the news 
that Stanley had brought him from the outside 
world, from which he had heard nothing for years. 

" Sit down," said the venerable man, " you have 
brought me good and bad news," and then he 
repeated, first of all, the tidings he had received 
from his children. 

In the excitement of the day before, the doctor 
had forgotten to inquire of Stanley the object of 
his coming, or where he was going, and the latter 
now said : " Doctor, you are probably wondering 
why I came here." 

" It is true," was the reply, " I have been won- 
dering." 



LIVINGSTONE ' S SURPRISE. 



183 



That wonder was increased when Stanley said: 
" I came after you, nothing else." 

''After me!" exclaimed the now utterly bewil- 
dered man. 

" Yes," said Stanley, " after you. I suppose 
you have heard of the New York Herald f 

" Yes," said the doctor. 

"Well, Mr. Bennett, son of the proprietor, sent 
me, at his own expense, to find you." 

Poor Livingstone could hardly comprehend the 
fact that an American, and a stranger, should ex- 
pend $25,000 to find him, a solitary Englishman. 

Stanley lived now some four months in the 
closest intimacy with Livingstone. Removed from 
all the formalities of civilized life — the only two 
in that far-off land who could converse in the Eno-- 
lish language, and who were of the same lineage 
and faith — their relations of necessity became 
very intimate. All restraint was thrown off, and 
this noble man poured into the astonished ears 
of Stanley all he had thought, prayed for, endured 
and suffered for the last long five years. It was a 
new revelation to his hearer. It opened up a new 
world ; gave him a new and loftier conception of 
what human nature is capable of attaining, and he 
says : " I had gone over battle-fields, witnessed 
revolutions, civil wars, rebellions, emeutes and 
massacres ; stood close to the condemned mur- 
derer to record his last struggles and last sighs ; 
but never had I been called to record anything 



184 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



that moved me so much as this man's woes and 
sufferings, his privations and disappointments, 
which were now poured into my ear. Verily did 
I begin to believe that ' the gods above us do with 
just eyes survey the affairs of men.' I began to 
recognize the hand of an overruling Providence." 

After resting for a week, during which time 
Stanley became thoroughly acquainted with Liv- 
ingstone and learned to respect and love him 
more and more, the former asked the doctor if he 
would not like to explore the north end of the 
Tanganika Lake and among other things, settle 
the question whether the Rusizi River flowed into 
or out of the lake. The doctor gladly consented, 
and they set off in a canoe manned by sixteen 
rowers. The weather was fine, the scenery charm- 
ing, and it seemed like floating through a fairy- 
land. Day after day they kept on — landing at 
night on the picturesque shores, undisturbed, 
except in one or two instances, by the natives. 
The luxuriant banks were lined with villages, filled 
with an indolent, contented people. With no 
wants except food to eat, and the lake full of fish, 
they had nothing to stimulate them to activity or 
effort of any kind. 

Islands came and went, mountains rose and 
faded on the horizon, and it was one long holiday 
to our two explorers. As the rowers bent steadily 
to their oars and the canoe glided softly through 
the rippling waters, they spent the time in ad- 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 



187 



miring the beautiful scenery that kept changing 
like a kaleidoscope, or talking of home and friends 
and the hopes and prospects of the future. A 
hippopotamus would now and then startle them 
by his loud snort, as he suddenly lifted his head 
near the boat to breathe, wild fowl skittered away 
as they approached, a sweet fragrance came down 
from the hill-sides, and the tropical sky bent soft 
and blue above them. The conventionalities of 
life were far away and all was calm and peaceful, 
and seemed to Stanley more like a dream than a 
reality. They were thus voyaging along the coast 
twenty-eight days, during which time they had 
traversed over three hundred miles of water. 

But at last the time came for Stanley to turn 
his footsteps homeward. He tried in vain to pre- 
vail on Livingstone to go home with him, but the 
latter, though anxious to see his children, reso- 
lutely refused, saying that he must finish his work. 
He, however, concluded to accompany Stanley as 
far as Unyanyembe, to meet the stores which had 
been forwarded to that place for him from Zanzi- 
bar. On the 27th of December, therefore, they 
set out by a new route. Nothing occurred in the 
long journey of special interest, except the shoot- 
ing of a zebra or a buffalo, the meeting of a herd 
of elephants or giraffes, or a lion. It was a tedi- 
ous and toilsome journey, during which Stanley 
suffered from attacks of fever, and Livingstone 
from lacerated feet. They were fifty-three days 



jgg IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 

on the march, but at lastUnyanyembe was reached. 
Stanley once more took possession of his old 
quarters. Here both found letters and papers 
f from home, brought by a recent caravan, and once 
more they seemed put in communication with the 
outside world. Being well-housed and provided 
with everything they needed, they felt thoroughly 
comfortable. 

The doctor's boxes were first broken open, and 
between the number of poor articles they con- 
tained and the absence of good ones which had 
been abstracted on the way, they proved some- 
thing of a disappointment. Stanley then over- 
hauled his own stores, of which there were seven- 
ty-four loads, the most valuable of which he 
intended to turn over to Livingstone. These also 
had been tampered with; still many luxuries re- 
mained, and they determined to have their Christ- 
mas dinner over again. Stanley arranged the 
bill of fare, and it turned out grandly. But now 
he saw that he must begin to prepare for his re- 
turn to the coast, and so he left Livingstone to 
write up his journal and to finish the letters he 
was to send home. In overhauling the stores and 
making up the packages he should need on his 
return route, he was able to select and turn over 
to the doctor two thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-eight yards of cloth, nine hundred and 
ninety-two pounds of assorted beads, three hun- 
dred and fifty pounds of brass wire, besides bed, 



PARTING WITH LIVINGSTONE. 



189 



canvas boat, carpenters' tools, rifles, revolvers, 
ammunition, cooking utensils and various other 
articles of use, making in all about forty loads. 
These, with the doctor's personal stores, made 
Livingstone quite a rich man for Central Africa — 
in fact, he had a four years' supply. 

At length the letters were all written, the loads 
strapped, and the next day fixed for Stanley to 
turn his face homeward and Livingstone his to 
the heart of Africa. At night the natives gave a 
great dance as a farewell compliment, and a wild, 
weird dance it was. Bombay wore a water-bucket 
on his head, while each carried or wore something 
grotesque or dangerous. The first was a war 
dance, and when it ended, a second and different 
one was started, accompanied by a chorus or song 
chanted in a slow, mournful tone, of which the 
burden was " Oh-oh-oh, the white man is going 
home." 

That night as Stanley lay and pondered on the 
morrow, when he should see the " good man " for 
the last time, he was filled with the keenest sor- 
row. He had grown to love him like a father ; and 
to see him turn back alone to the savage life he 
must encounter in his great work, seemed like 
giving him over to death. 

It was a sad breakfast to which the two sat 
down next morning. But it was over at last and 
the parting hour came. 

" Doctor," said Stanley, " I will leave two men 



190 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



with you for a couple of days, lest you may have 
forgotten something, and will wait for them at 
Tura ; and now we must part — there is no help 
for it — good-bye." 

" Oh," replied Livingstone, " I am coming with 
you a little way; I must see you off on the road;" 
and the two walked on side by side, their hearts 
burdened with grief. 

At last Stanley said: "Now, my dear doctor, 
the best friends must part, you have come far 
enough, let me beg of you to turn back." 

Livingstone stopped and, seizing Stanley's 
hand, said: "I am grateful to you for what you 
have done for me. God guide you safe home 
and bless you, my friend." 

"And may God bring you safe back to us all, 
my friend," replied Stanley, with a voice choked 
with emotion. "Farewell!' 

They wrung each other's hands in silence for a 
minute, and then Stanley turned away to hide his 
tears, murmuring: "Good-bye, doctor; dear friend, 
good-bye." 

He would not have been the* man he is, not to 
have been overcome at this parting; alas, to be, 
as it proved, a final parting, so far as concerns 
meeting again in this life. But this was not all — 
the doctor's faithful servants would not be forgot- 
ten, and rushing forward, they* seized Stanley's 
hands and kissed them for their good master's 
sake. The stein and almost tyrannical man, that 



TRIBUTE TO LIVINGSTONE. jqj 

neither danger nor suffering could move, com- 
pletely broke down under this last demonstration 
and could recover himself only by giving the sharp 
order, March ! and he almost drove his men 
before him, and soon a turn in the path shut out 
Livingstone's form forever. Yes, forever, so far 
as the living, speaking man is concerned, but shut 
out never from Stanley's life. That one man fixed 
his destiny for this world, and who knows but for 
the eternal ages? No wonder that he said, long 
after, "My eyes grow dim at the remembrance 
of that parting. For four months and four days 
I lived with him in the same house, or in the same 
boat, or in the same tent, and I never found a 
fault in him. I am a man of a quick temper, and 
often without sufficient cause, I dare say, have 
broken ties of friendship; but with Livingstone I 
never had cause of resentment, but each day's 
life with him added to my admiration of him." 

The caravan marched wearily back, meeting 
with nothing eventful till it entered the Utoto 
territory, where, owing to a misunderstanding on 
the part of the natives, who got it into their heads 
that Stanley meant to pass them without paying 
the accustomed tribute, a fight seemed inevitable. 
Had it occurred, it is doubtful whether he or Liv- 
ingstone's papers would ever have been heard of 
again. But Stanley had seemed from his infancy 
a child of destiny, and escaped here, as every- 
where, by the skin of his teeth. It was a constant 



!Q 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

succession of toilsome, painful marches, even when 
the natives were friendly, while there was often a 
scarcity of provisions. To secure these he, at 
last, when on the borders of the wilderness of 
Marenga Mkali, dispatched three men to Zanzibar, 
with a request to the consul there to send them 
back with provisions. These messengers were 
told not to halt for anything — rain, rivers or inun- 
dations — but push right on. " Then," says Stan- 
ley, "with a loud, vigorous hurrah, we plunged 
into the depths of the wilderness which, with its 
eternal silence and solitude, was far preferable to 
the jarring, inharmonious discord of the villages 
of the Wagogo. For nine hours we held on our 
way, starting with noisy shouts the fierce rhinoce- 
ros, the timid quagga and the herds of antelopes, 
which crowd the jungles of this broad Salina. On 
the 7th, amid a pelting rain, we entered Mpwapwa, 
where my Scotch assistant, Farquhar, had died." 

In twenty-nine days they had marched three 
hundred and thirty-eight miles. Twelve miles a 
day, including stoppages and delays, was in such 
a country rapid marching — nay, almost unparal- 
leled ; but Stanley had turned his face homeward 
and could stand no African dilly-dallying on the 
way. We cannot go into the details of this home- 
ward march, — to-day startled by a thousand war- 
riors, streaming along the war-path, — to-morrow 
on the brink of a collision with the natives, the end 
of which no one could foresee, but the caravan 



PASSING THE SWAMPS. IQ ^ 

pressed on until they came to the neighborhood 
of the terrible Makata swamps, that Stanley had 
occasion so well to remember. Heavy rains had 
set in, swelling all the streams and inundating the 
plains, so that the marching was floundering 
through interminable stretches of water. Now 
swimming turbulent rivers — now camping in the 
midst of pestiferous swamps, and all the time 
drenched by the rain, that fell* in torrents — they 
struggled on until, at last, they came to the dreaded 
Makata swamp itself. The sight that met them 
here was appalling, but there was no retreat, and 
for long hours they toiled slowly through, some- 
times up to their necks in water, sometimes swim- 
ming, and where it was shallow sinking in deep 
mire. They thus fought their way on, and at last, 
weary, worn and half-starved, came to the Makata 
River. But no sooner were they over this, than 
a lake six miles wide stretched before them. The 
natives warned him against attempting to cross it; 
but nothing could stop him now, and they all 
plunged in. 

He says: "We were soon up to our armpits, 
then the water shallowed to the knee, then we 
stepped up to the neck and waded on tiptoe, until 
we were halted on the edge of the Little Makata, 
which raced along at the rate of eight knots an 
hour." Fierce and rapid as it was, there was no 
course left but to swim it, and swim it they did. 
For a whole week they had been wading and swim- 



I 04 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

niing and floundering through water, till it seemed 
impossible that any one could survive such ex- 
posure, but, at last they came to dry ground and 
to the famous walled city of the Sultana Limbam- 
wanni, which we described in his upward journey. 
But the heavy rains that had inundated the whole 
country, had so swollen the river, near the banks 
on which it was situated, that the water had carried 
away the entire front wall of the town, and some 
fifty houses with it. The sultana had fled and her 
stronghold had disappeared. All along the route 
was seen the devastating power of the flood as it 
swept over the country, carrying away a hundred 
villaees in its course. The fields were covered 
with debris of sand and mud, and what was a para- 
dise when he went in was now a desert. With the 
subsidence of the water the atmosphere became 
impregnated with miasma, and the whole land 
seemed filled with snakes, scorpions, iguanas and 
ants, while clouds of mosquitoes darkened the air 
till life became almost intolerable. At last, on May 
2d, after forty-seven days of incessant marching, 
and almost continual suffering, they reached Ro- 
sako, where, a few minutes after, the three men he 
had sent forward arrived, brinoqne with them a few 
boxes of jam, two of Boston crackers, and some 
bottles of champagne; and most welcome they 
were after the terrible journey through the Makata 
Valley. The last great obstacle (a ferry of four 
miles across a watery plain) being surmounted, 



A GAIN A T ZANZIBAR. j g ,- 

the caravan approached Bagomayo, and in their 
jubilant excitement announced its arrival by the 
firing of guns and blowing of horns, and with 
shouting hurrahs till they were hoarse. The sun 
was just sinking behind the distant forests, from 
which they had emerged and which were filled with 
such terrible associations, when they entered the 
town, and sniffed with delight the fresh sea-breeze 
that came softly stealing inland. The putrid air of 
the swamps, the poisonous miasma that enveloped 
the entire country, were left far behind with want 
and famine, and no wonder the heart was elated 
and their bounding joy found expression in exult- 
ant shouts. 

Happy in having once more reached civilization; 
happy in the thought of his triumphant success; 
and still more happy in the joy that he believed 
the good news he brought would give to others, 
Stanley's heart was overflowing with kindness to 
all, and the world seemed bright to him. But, in 
a moment it was all dashed on opening the papers 
at Zanzibar. Scarcely one had a kind word for 
him; on the contrary, he found nothing but sus- 
picion, jealousy and detraction, and even charges' 
of fabricating the whole story of having found Liv- 
ing-stone. He was stunned at this undeserved 
cruel, reception of his declaration, and the faith in 
the goodness of human nature, with which Living- 
stone had inspired him, seemed about to give way 
before this evidence of its meanness and littleness. 



196 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



He could not comprehend how his simple, truth- 
ful, unostentatious story could awaken such unkind 
feelings, such baseless slanders. It was a cruel 
blow to receive, after all that he had endured and 
suffered. No wonder he wrote bitter words of 
the kid-glove geographers, who criticized him, and 
the press that jeered at him. But he -has had his 
revenge, for he has triumphed over them all. 

He immediately set to work to organize a cara- 
van to send off to Livingstone the things he had 
promised, and then started for home. 



• 



CHAPTER X. 

STANLEY'S MAIN EXPEDITION. 

STANLEY, after he had found Livingstone, 
naturally thought much of the latter's ex- 
plorations. Africa had become to him an 
absorbing subject, and he began to imbibe the 
spirit of Livingstone. This was natural, for 
Stanley had already won fame there, and why 
should he not win still greater laurels in the same 
field ? This feeling was much increased after the 
death of the great explorer, leaving his work un- 
finished, which Stanley longed to complete. True, 
Cameron was on the ground to accomplish this very 
object, but Stanley knew the difficulties one would 
have to contend with without a boat of his own. 
The matter was talked over a good deal, and 
finally the proprietors of the New York Herald 
and London Telegraph determined to send Stanley 
once more into Africa. 

The vast lake region, embracing some six de- 
grees of longitude, and extending from the equator 
to fifteen degrees south latitude, had become a 
region of the greatest interest to explorers. On 
this vast water-shed lived a mighty population, 
and these lakes, with the rivers running into and 
out of them, must furnish the roads to commerce 

197 



I qS IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

and be the means by which Africa should be 
lifted out of its barbarism into the light of civili- 
zation. 

The large lakes Nyassa and Tanganika had 
been more or less explored, but the one possess- 
ing the greatest interest, the Victoria Nyanza — on 
account of the general impression that it was the 
head of the Nile — was almost wholly unknown. 
The persistence with which the Nile had mocked all 
previous attempts to find its source, had imparted a 
mystery to it and caused efforts to be made to 
unlock the secret, which were wholly dispropor- 
tioned to its seeming value or real importance. 
Thi: lake, therefore, was to be Stanley's first ob- 
jective point. Livingstone, Speke and Burton, 
and others had seen it — he would sail around it in 
a boat which he would take with him. This he had 
made in sections, so that it could be carried the 
nearly one thousand miles through the jungles of 
Africa to its destination. 

Everything being completed he started on his 
route, and in the latter part of 1874 found himself 
once more at Zanzibar, after an absence of four 
years. Here, in organizing his expedition, he 
discovered that the builder had made his boat, 
which he had christened the Lady Alice, a great 
deal heavier than he had ordered ; but he luckily 
found a man in Zanzibar who was able to reduce 
its weight so that it could be transported by the 
carriers. His force consisted in all, of a little over 



A GAIN JO URNE YING INLAND. j gg 

three hundred men, and he took with him several 
powerful dogs. 

The interest of this great expedition begins 
where he struck off from the regular route of the 
caravans going west, and entered an entirely new 
country and encountered a new race of people. 
Instead of moving directly westward, he turned 
off to the north, and at length reached the western 
frontier of Ugogo, on the last day of the year 
1874. The country at this point stretched before 
him in one vast plain, which some of the natives 
said extended clear to Nyanza. He found that his 
course led him along the extremity of Whumba, 
which he was glad to know, as he thought his 
march would now be unmolested. Two days' 
march brought them to the borders of Usandawa, 
a country abounding in elephants. Here he turned 
to the north-west and entered Ukimbu or Uyonzi 
on its eastern extremity. The guides he had hired 
in Ueoeo to take him as far as Iramba here de- 
serted him. Hiring fresh ones, he continued two 
days in the same direction, when these deserted 
him also, and Stanley found himself one morning 
on the edge of a vast wilderness without a guide. 

The day before, the guides had told him that 
three days' march would bring him to Urimi. Re- 
lying on the truth of this statement, he had 
purchased only two days' provisions. Thinking, 
therefore, that they would be there by the even- 
ing of the next day, he thought little of the de- 



200 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

sertion and moved off with confidence. But the 
next morning, the track, which was narrow and 
indistinct at the best, became so inextricably mixed 
up with the paths made by elephants and rhino- 
ceros, that they were wholly at a loss what course 
to take. Halting, Stanley sent out men to seek 
the lost trail, but they returned unable to find it. 
They then, of course, could do nothing but march 
by compass, which they did. 

As might be expected, it brought them, after a 
few hours' march, into a dense jungle of acacias 
and euphorbias, through which they could make 
their way only by crawling, scrambling and cutting 
the entangling vines. Now pushing aside an ob- 
structing branch — now cutting a narrow lane 
through the matted mass, and now taking advan- 
tage of a slight opening, this little band of three 
hundred struggled painfully forward toward what 
they thought was open country, and an African 
village with plenty of provisions. 

In this protracted struggle the third night over- 
took them in the wilderness, and there they pitched 
their lonely, starving camp. To make it more 
gloomy, one of the men died and was buried; his 
shallow grave seeming to be a sad foreboding of 
what awaited them in the future. The want of 
provisions now began to tell terribly on the men, 
but there was nothing to do but go forward, trust- 
ing to some break in this apparently interminable 
wilderness. But human endurance has its limit, 



LOST IN THE JUNGLE. 2 OI 



and although Stanley kept his little force marching 
all da/, they made but fourteen miles. It was a 
continual jungle, with not a drop of water on the 
route. The poor carriers, hungry and thirsty, 
sank under their loads and layered behind the 
main force for many miles, until it became a strag- 
gling, weary, despondent crowd, moving without 
order and without care through the wilderness. 
The strong endeavored to help the weak, and did 
relieve them of their burdens and encouraee them 
to hold on, so that most of them were able to 
reach the camp at night. But in despite of all 
effort five sick, despairing men, strayed from the 
path, which was only a blind trail made by those 
in advance. 

After the camp for the night was pitched, Stan- 
ley sent back scouts to find the wanderers. They 
explored the woods for a mile each side of the 
track, but only one man was found, and he fully a 
mile from the trail and dead. The other four had 
wandered off beyond reach and were never heard 
of more. This was getting to be fearful marching 
— five men in one day was a death-roll that could 
not be kept up long, and Stanley began to cast 
about anxiously to determine what step he should 
next take. There was but one course left open 
to him, to attempt to retrace his steps was certain 
death by famine, to advance could not be worse, 
while it might bring relief, so "push on," was the 
order, and they did push on, weary, thirsty, starv- 



202 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

ing, and on the fifth day they came to a little vil- 
lage recently established, and which consisted of 
only four huts, occupied by four men with their 
wives and children. These had scarcely provisions 
enough to keep themselves, and hence could 
give nothing to Stanley's starving men. It was 
useless to attempt further marching without food, 
for the men staggered into camp exhausted, 
and would rather die there than attempt to move 
a^ain. 

Stanley's experience had taught him how far he 
could urge on these African carriers and soldiers, 
and he saw they had now become desperate and 
would not budge another inch until they had some- 
thing to eat. He, therefore, ordered a halt, and 
selecting twenty of his strongest men, sent them 
off in search of food. They were to press on to 
a village called Suna, about thirty miles distant, 
of which the natives told him, and where they said 
food was in abundance, As soon as they had dis- 
appeared in the forest, Stanley took his gun and 
strolled out in sqarch of game. But, filled as. the 
country seemed with it, he could find nothing to 
shoot. One of his men, however, came across a 
lion's den, in which were two cubs, which he 
brought to Stanley. The latter skinned them and 
took them back to camp. As he entered it, the 
pinched and worn faces of his faithful men, as they 
sat hungry and despairing, moved him so deeply 
that he would have wept, but for fear of adding to 



LION SOUP. 203 

their despondency. The two cubs would go but 
a little way toward feeding some two hundred and 
twenty men, if cooked as ordinary meat, so he 
resolved to make a soup of them, which would go 
much farther. But the question was where to get 
a kettle large enough to make a soup for such a 
large body of men. 

Luckily, he bethought himself of a sheet-iron 
trunk which he had among- his baa-gage, anc j wn j c h 
was water-tight. He quickly dumped out of it its 
contents, and filling it with water, set it over a fire 
which he had ordered to be made. He then broke 
open his medical stores, and taking out five pounds 
of Scotch oatmeal and three one-pound tins of 
Revalenia Arabica, he made with it and the two 
young lions a huge trunk full of gruel, that would 
give even two hundred and twenty men a good 
bowl apiece. He said it was a rare sight to see 
those hungry, famished men gather around that 
Torquay dress-trunk and pile on the fuel, and in 
every way assist to make the contents boil, while 
with greedy eyes, with gourds in their hands full 
of water, they stood ready to pour it in the mo- 
ment it threatened to boil over and waste the 
precious contents. " But," he adds, "it was a rarer 
sight still to watch the famished wretches, as, with 
these same gourds full of the precious broth, they 
drank it down as only starving men swallow food. 
The weak and sick got a larger portion, and 
another tin of oatmeal being opened for their sup- 



204 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



per and breakfast, they awaited patiently the return 
of those who had gone in quest of food." 

Stanley's position now became painfully trying. 
He was five days' march from where he could 
obtain food, if he attempted to go back. This 
march, in the present condition of his men, they 
could never make, and if any did survive, it would 
be on the terrible condition of the living eating 
the dead. 

The only hope lay in reaching supplies in ad- 
vance. But what if those twenty strong men he 
had sent on to find them never returned, having 
been ambushed and killed on the way, or what if 
they, at the end of several days, returned and 
reported nothing but an unbroken wilderness and 
impassable jungle or swamps in front, and them- 
selves famished, ready to die ? These were ques- 
tions that Stanley anxiously put to himself and 
dared not contemplate the answer. The hours of 
painful anxiety and suspense, the maddening 
thoughts and wild possibilities that fire the brain 
and oppress the heart in such crises as these can- 
not be imagined, they can be known only by him 
who suffers the pangs they inflict. This is a por- 
tion of the history of the expedition that Stanley 
can never write, though it is written on his heart 
in lines that will never be effaced. 

The empty trunk lay on one side, and the night 
came down and the stars burned bright and tran- 
quilly above, and all was silent in the wide solitude 



GOOD NEWS. 



205 



as Stanley sat and listened for the return of his 
men. But they came not, and the morning broke 
and the sun rode the tropical heavens once more 
in his splendor, but no musket-shot from the forest 
told of the returning scouts. The weary hours 
wore on and the emaciated men lay around in 
silent suffering. To Stanley those hours seemed 
days. Night again darkened the forest and still 
no sign of the returning party. Would they ever 
return ? was the terrible question Stanley was per- 
petually putting to himself, and if not, what des- 
perate movement should he attempt? 

The third morning broke as calm and peaceful 
as the rest ; he was beginning to despair, when, 
suddenly, a musket-shot broke over the forest, 
and then another and another, sending sudden life 
and activity throughout the despairing camp. The 
men, as they emerged into view laden with food, 
were greeted with a loud shout, and the hungry 
wretches fell on the provisions they brought like 
ravening wolves. The report of abundance ahead 
so excited the men that they forgot their feeble- 
ness and clamored to be led on that very after- 
noon. Stanley was quite willing to get away from 
the jungle, filled with such painful associations, 
and cheerfully ordered the march, but before they 
could get away two men breathed their last in the 
camp and were left to sleep alone in the wilder- 
ness. 

That night they encamped at the base of a 



206 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



rocky hill, from which stretched away a broad 
plain. The hill, lifting itself into the clear air, 
and the open plain, seemed like civilization com- 
pared with the gloomy jungle in which they had 
been starving for the last two days, and where 
they had left two of their number. They awoke 
next morning cheerful and refreshed. Starting 
off with the prospect of abundant provisions ahead, 
they made a steady march of twenty miles and 
reached the district of Suna in Urimi. 

Stanley was surprised, on entering the rude 
village, to see a new type of African life. Men 
and women of great beauty and fine physical pro- 
portions met his astonished sight. They stood be- 
fore him in all their naked beauty, unabashed: the 
women bearing children alone wearing a covering 
of goat skins, designed evidently as a protection 
against external injury, and not caused by any 
notions of modesty. Their fine appearance seemed 
to indicate a greater mental development than any 
other tribes which they had met. Whether this 
were so or not, it would be difficult to tell, for they 
were the most suspicious, reserved people Stanley 
had ever met, being greatly disinclined to barter 
provisions, . of which they had more than they 
wanted, for cloth and beads, of which they ap- 
parently had none. 

They had no chief, but seemed to be governed 
in their actions by the old men. With these 
Stanley therefore treated for permission to pass 



DEATH IN THE CAMP. 2 Q>7 

through their land. It required great tact to se- 
cure this, and still more to obtain the required 
food. Stanley bore this silent hostility patiently, 
for though he could have taken all he wanted by 
force, he wished to avoid all violence. While 
lingering here, two more of his exhausted comp- 
any gave out and died, while his sick list swelled 
up to thirty. Among the latter was Edward 
Pocoke, whom, with his brother, Stanley had en- 
gaged in England to accompany him as attend- 
ants. This compelled him to halt for four days, 
but finding- that the hostile feeling of the natives 
increased the longer he stayed, he determined, 
dangerous as it was to the sick, especially to 
Pocoke, to leave. Dysentery and diarrhcea were 
prevailing to an alarming extent, and rest was 
especially necessary for these, if they hoped to re- 
cover ; but he was afraid matters would become 
dangerously complicated if he remained, and he 
turned his soldiers into carriers and sluno- the sick 
into hammocks. Encouraging them with the pros- 
pect of plenty and comfort ahead, he gave the order 
to march, and they passed out and entered upon 
a clear, open and well cultivated, country. Reach- 
ing a village at 10 o'clock they halted, and here, 
to the great grief of all, young Pocoke breathed 
his last. In speaking of this sad event, which cast 
a gloom over the camp, Stanley says : " We had 
finished the four hundredth mile of our march 
from the sea and had reached the base of the 



2q8 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

water-shed, where the trickling streams and in- 
fant waters began to flow Nile-ward, when this 
noble young man died." They buried him at 
nipfht under a tree, with the stars shining down 
on the shallow-made grave ; Stanley reading the 
burial service of the Church of England over the 
body. Far from home and friends in that distant* 
lonely land he sleeps to-day, a simple wooden 
cross marking his burial place. Stanley sent the 
following letter home to the young man's father, 
describing his sickness and death : 

" Kagehyi, on the Victoria Nyanza, 
"March 4th, 1875. 

"Dear Sir: A most unpleasant, because sad, 
task devolves upon me, for I have the misfortune 
to have to report to you the death of your son 
Edward, of typhoid fever. His service with me 
was brief, but it was long enough for me to know 
the greatness of your loss, for I doubt that few 
fathers can boast of such sons as yours. Both 
Frank and Ted proved themselves sterling men, 
noble and brave hearts and faithful servants. Ted 
had endeared himself to the members of the ex- 
pedition by his amiable nature, his cheerfulness, 
and by various qualifications which brought him 
into hieh favor with the native soldiers of this 
force. 

" Before daybreak we were accustomed to hear 
the cheery notes of his bugle, which woke us to a 



LETTER OF CONDOLENCE. 



209 



fresh day's labor ; at night, around the camp-fires, 
we were charmed with his sweet, simple songs, of 
which he had an inexhaustible repertoire. When 
tired also with marching, it was his task to announce 
to the tired people the arrival of the vanguard at 
camp, so that he had become quite a treasure to 
us all ; and I must say, I have never known men 
who could bear what your sons have borne on 
this expedition so patiently and uncomplainingly. 
I never heard one grumble either from Frank or 
Ted ; have never heard them utter an illiberal 
remark, or express any wish that the expedition 
had never set foot in Africa, as many men would 
have done in their situation, so that you may well 
imagine, that if the loss of one of your sons 
causes grief to your paternal heart, it has been no 
less a grief to us, as we were all, as it were, one 
family, surrounded as we are by so much that is 
dark and forbidding. 

"On arriving at Suna, in Urimi, Ted came to me, 
after a very long march, complaining of pain in 
his limbs and loins. I did not think it was serious 
at all, nor anything uncommon after walking- 
twenty miles, but told him to go and lie down, 
that he would be better on the morrow, as it was 
very likely fatigue. The next morning I visited 
him, and he again complained of pains in the 
knees and back, which I ascribed to rheumatism, 
and treated him accordingly. The third day he 
complained of pain in the chest, difficulty of 
H 



2 ! o IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 

breathing and sleeplessness, from which I per- 
ceived he was suffering from some other malady 
than rheumatism, but what it could be I could not 
divine. He was a little feverish, so I applied a 
mustard-plaster and gave him some aperient medi- 
cine. Toward night he began to wander in his 
head, and on examining his tongue I found it was 
almost black and coated with dark gray fur. At 
these symptoms I thought he had a severe attack 
of remittent fever, from which I suffered in Ujiji, 
in 1 87 1, and therefore I watched for an oppor- 
tunity to administer quinine — that is, when the 
fever should abate a little. 

" On the fourth day, the patient still wandering 
in his mind, I suggested to Frank that he should 
sponge him with cold water and change his cloth- 
ing, during which operation I noticed that the 
chest of the patient was covered with spots like 
pimples or small-pox pustules, which perplexed 
me greatly. He. could not have caught the small- 
pox, and what the disease was I could not imagine ; 
but, turning to my medical books, I saw that your 
son was suffering from typhoid, the description of 
which was too clear to be longer mistaken, and 
both Frank and I devoted our attention to him. 
He was nourished with arrow-root and brandy, 
and everything that was in our power to do was 
done ; but it was very evident that the case was 
serious, though I hoped that his constitution would 
brave it out. 



BURIAL OF POCOKE. 2!^ 

" On the fifth day we were compelled to resume 
our journey, after a rest of four days. Ted was 
put in a hammock and carried on the shoulders 
of four men. At 10 o'clock on the 17th of Janu- 
ary, we halted at Chiwyn, and the minute he was 
laid down in the camp he breathed his last. Our 
companion was dead. 

" We buried him that night under a tree, on 
which his brother Frank had cut a deep cross, and 
we read the beautiful service of the Church of 
England over him as we laid the poor worn-out 
body in its final resting-place so far from his own 
home and friends. 

" Peace be to his ashes. Poor Ted deserved a 
better fate than dying in Africa, but it was im- 
possible that he could have died easier. I wish 
that my end may be as peaceful and painless as 
his. He was spared the stormy scenes we went 
through afterwards in our war with the Waturn : 
and who knows how much he has been saved 
from ? But I know that he would have rejoiced 
to be with us at this hour of our triumph, gazing 
on the laughing waters of the vast fountain of the 
old Nile. None of us would have been, more 
elated at the prospect before us than he, for he 
was a true sailor, and loved the sight of water. 
Yet again I say peace be to his ashes ; be consoled, 
for Frank still lives, and, from present appear- 
ances, is likely to come home to you with honor 
and glory, such as he and you may well be proud 



214 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



of. Believe me, dear sir, with true sincerity, your 
well-wisher, Henry M. Stanley." 

Stanley still traveled in a northwest direction, 
and the farther he advanced the more he was con- 
vinced that the rivulets he encountered flowed into 
the Nile, and he became elated with the hope that 
he should soon stand on the shores of the great 
lake that served as the head reservoir of the 
mighty river. 

Two days' march now brought them to Mon- 
gafa, where one of his men who had accompanied 
him on his former expedition was murdered. He 
was suffering from the asthma, and Stanley per- 
mitted him to follow the party slowly. Straggling 
thus behind alone, he was waylaid by the natives 
and murdered. It was impossible to ascertain 
who committed the deed, and so Stanley could 
not avenge the crime. 

Keeping on they at length entered Itwru, a dis- 
trict of Northern Urimi. The village where they 
camped was called Vinyata, containing some two 
thousand to three thousand souls, and was situ- 
ated in a broad and populous valley, through which 
flowed a stream twenty feet wide. The people 
here received him in a surly manner, but Stanley 
was very anxious to avoid trouble and used every 
exertion to conciliate them. He seemed, at last 
to succeed, for at evening they brought him milk, 
eggs and chickens, taking cloth in exchange. This 



MAGIC DOCTOR. 



215 



reached the ears of the great man of the valley, a 
magic doctor, who, there being no king over the 
people, is treated with the highest respect and 
honor by them. The next day he brought Stan- 
ley a fat ox, for which the latter paid him twice 
what it was worth in cloth and beads, besides 
making a rich present to his brother and son. To 
all this man's requests Stanley cheerfully consent- 
ed in his anxiety to conciliate him and the natives. 
That day, taking advantage of the bright sun to 
dry the bales and goods, he exposed his rich stores, 
an imprudence which he very quickly deeply 
regretted, for he saw that the display awoke all 
the greedy feelings of the natives, as was evinced 
by their eager looks. But the day passed quietly, 
and on the third morning the great man made his 
appearance again and begged for more beads, 
which were given him and he departed apparently 
very much pleased, and Stanley congratulated 
himself that he would be allowed to depart in 
peace, 



CHAPTER XL 

PRESSING TOWARDS THE INTERIOR. 

FOR a half an hour after the magic doctor 
left, Stanley sat quietly in his camp, his 
anxieties now thoroughly dissipated, think- 
ing over his speedy departure for the Nyanza. 
The camp was situated on the margin of a vast 
wilderness, which stretched he knew not how far 
westward, while away to the north, south and east 
extended a wide, open plain, dotted over, as far as 
the eye could see, with villages. There were 
nearly two hundred of them, looking is the dis- 
tance like clusters of beehives. Everything was 
peaceful, and not a sound disturbed the Sabbath- 
like stillness of the scene, when there suddenly 
broke on his ears the shrill war-cry, which was 
taken up by village after village till the whole val- 
ley resounded with it. It was one loud "he-hu, 
he-hu," the last syllable prolonged and uttered in 
a high, piercing note that made the blood shiver. 
Still Stanley felt no alarm, supposing that some 
war expedition was about to be set on foot, or 
some enemy was reported to be near, and listened 
to the barbaric cry simply with curiosity. The 
men in the camp kept about their usual avoca- 
tions — some fetching water from a neighboring 

216 



A HOSTILE SURPRISE. 2 I 7 

pool, while others were starting off after wood — 
when suddenly a hundred warriors appeared close 
to camp in full war costume. Feathers of the 
eagle and other birds waved above their heads, 
"the mane of the zebra and giraffe encircled their 
foreheads, their left hand held the bow and arrows, 
while the right grasped the spear." Stanley 
arose, and telling the men not to leave camp nor 
do anything to provoke a hostile act, waited to see 
what this sudden warlike attitude meant. 

In the meantime the throng increased till the 
entire camp was surrounded. A slight bush fence 
had been built around it, which, though it con- 
cealed those within, was too slight to be of use in 
case of an attack. Seeing that this hostile demon- 
stration was against him, Stanley sent out a young 
man wbo spoke their language, to inquire what 
they wanted. Six or seven warriors advanced to 
meet him, when a lively conversation followed. 
The messenger soon returned and reported that 
they accused one of the party of having stolen 
some milk and butter from a small village, and 
they must be paid for it in cloth. He at once sent 
the messenger back, directing him to tell the war- 
riors that he did not come into their country to 
rob or steal, and if anything had been taken from 
them they had but to name the price they asked 
for it and it should be paid at once. The messen- 
ger brought back word that they demanded four 
yards of sheeting; although this was worth four 



2 I 8 1 N THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

times as much as the articles were which they 
alleged had been stolen, he was very glad to settle 
the matter so easily, and it was measured and sent 
to them. The elders declared that they were per- 
fectly satisfied, and they all withdrew. But Stan- 
ley could not at once shake off the suspicion this 
unexpected show of hostile feeling had excited, 
and he watched narrowly the villages in the dis- 
tance. He soon saw that the warriors were not 
pacified if the elders were, for he could see them 
hurrying together from all parts of the plain and 
gesticulating wildly. 

Still he hoped the elders would keep them from 
any overt act of hostility. While he was watching 
them, he saw about two hundred men separate 
themselves from the main body, and taking a sweep, 
make for the woods west of the camp. They had 
hardly entered when one of Stanley's men rushed 
forth from the same vicinity into camp bleeding 
profusely from his face and arms. He said that 
Suleiman (a youth) and he were gathering wood 
when the savages came suddenly upon them. He 
was struck with a stick that broke his nose, and 
his arm was pierced with a spear, while Suleiman 
fell pierced with a dozen spears. His story and 
bloody appearance so excited the soldiers that 
Stanley could with difficulty restrain them from 
rushing out at once and attacking the murderers. 
He did not yet despair of preventing an outbreak, 
but took care to open the ammunition and be pre- 



A BA TTLE. 2 j g 

pared for the worst. He saw at once that an im- 
mensely large force could be brought against him, 
and he must fortify himself or he would be over- 
whelmed by numbers, and so ordered the men 
immediately to commence strengthening the fence. 
They had not been long employed at it when the 
savages made a dash at the camp, and sent a 
shower of arrows into it. Stanley immediately 
ordered sixty soldiers to deploy fifty yards in front. 
At the word of command they rushed out, and the 
battle commenced. 

The enemy soon turned in flight and the soldiers 
pursued them. Every man was now ordered to 
work on the defenses ; some cut down thorn-trees 
and threw together rapidly a high fence all around 
the camp, while others were ordered to build plat- 
forms within for the sharp-shooters. All this time 
Stanley could hear the fire of the soldiers grow- 
ing more and more indistinct in the distance. 
When the fence was completed he directed the 
sections of the Lady Alice to be placed so as to 
form a sort of central camp, to which they could 
retire in the last extremity. As soon as every- 
thing- was finished he ordered the bugle to sound 
the retreat, and soon the skirmishers came in sight. 
They reported fifteen of the enemy killed. All 
had fought bravely, even a bull-dog had seized a 
savage and was tearing him to pieces, when a 
bullet put the poor wretch out of his misery. 

They were not molested again that day, which 



2 20 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

gave them time to make their position still 
stronger. The night passed quietly, and they 
were allowed to breakfast in peace. But about 
9 o'clock the savages in great numbers advanced 
upon the camp. All hopes of peace were now at 
an end, and since he was forced to fight, Stanley 
determined to inflict no half-way punishment, but 
sweep that fair valley with the besom of destruc- 
tion. He therefore selected four reliable men, 
placed them at the head of four detachments, as- 
signing to each a fleet runner, whose duty it was, 
not to fight, but to report any disaster that threat- 
ened or befell the detachment to which the man be- 
longed. He then ordered them to move out and 
attack the savages. As the route of the enemy 
was certain, he directed them to pursue them sep- 
arately, yet keep before them as the place of final 
rendezvous, some high rocks five miles distant 
down the valley. % The detachments poured forth 
from the camp, and the deadly fire-arms so ap- 
palled those savage warriors, armed only with the 
bow and spear, that they at once turned and fled. 
The detachments followed in hot pursuit, and what 
promised to be a fight, became a regular stampede. 
But one detachment having pursued a large force 
of the enemy into the open plain, the latter turned 
at bay. 

The leader of the detchment, excited by the 
pursuit, and believing, in his contempt for the sav- 
ages, that the mere sight of his little band would 



A MASSACRE. 221 

send them scurrying- away in deadly fear, charged 
boldly on them. Quick as thought they closed 
around him in overwhelming numbers. The run- 
ner alone escaped and bore the sad tidings to 
Stanley. The appointment of these runners shows 
his wonderful prevision — that foresight which on 
many occasions -alone saved him. He at once 
sent assistance to the detachment that the courier 
had reported surrounded. Alas, before it arrived 
every man had been massacred. The aid, though 
it came too late to save the brave detachment, ar- 
rived just in time to save the second, which was just 
falling into the same snare, for the large force that" 
had annihilated the first had now turned on this, 
and its fate seemed sealed. The reinforcements 
hurried off by Stanley found it completely hemmed 
in by the savages. Two soldiers had already been 
killed, the captain was wounded, and in a few 
minutes more they would have shared the fate of 
the first detachment. 

It was at this critical moment they arrived, and 
suddenly pouring a deadly volley into the rear of 
the assailants, sent them to the right about with 
astonishing quickness. The two detachments 
now wheeled and poured a concentrated volley 
into the savages, which sent them flying wildly 
over the plain. A swift pursuit was commenced, 
but the fleet enemy could not be overtaken, and 
the march up the valley was scarcely resisted. 
Stanley, in camp, carefully watched the progress 



222 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



of the fight, which could be distinguished at first 
by the volleys of his soldiers, and when, receding 
in the distance, these could be no longer heard, 
by the puffs of smoke which showed where the 
pursuit led. » 

But at length clouds of smoke of a different 
character began to ascend from the quiet valley. 
To the riofht and left the dark columns obscured 
the noonday sun, and far as the eye could reach, 
the plain, with its hundreds of villages of thatched 
huts, presented one wide conflagration, till the 
murky mass of cloudy vapor, as it rolled heaven- 
ward, made it appear like a second Sodom, suffer- 
ing the vengeance of heaven. To the distance of 
eight miles, Stanley could see jets of smoke that 
told of burning villages. He had delayed to the 
last moment hostile action, but having once com- 
menced it he meant to leave behind him no power 
of retaliation. 

It was a victorious but sad day, and the return 
of the detachments was anything but a triumphal 
march, for they bore back twenty-one dead men, 
besides the wounded, while they could report but 
thirty-five of the enemy killed. So little difference 
in the number of the slain, when one was the pur- 
sued and the other the pursuing party, and when 
the former was armed only with spears and bows, 
and the latter with the deadly rifle, seems at first 
sight unaccountable, but it must be remembered 
that the unfortunate detachment that was sur- 



A SUMMARY RETRIBUTION. 



223 



rounded and massacred to a man, furnished almost 
the entire list of the killed. 

The camp was at peace that night, but it was a 
sad peace. A few more such victories as this 
and Stanley would be left without an expedition. 

This unfortunate experience with these people 
showed the danger of his undertaking a new 
route. His object was not to travel among new 
people, but to reach the lake region with his boat 
and settle great geographical problems and esta- 
blish certain facts having an intimate bearing on 
the future of Africa. Yet by his chosen course 
he really obtained no new and valuable informa- 
tion but imperiled and well-nigh ruined the expe- 
dition fitted out with so much expense and care. 

His was the nearest course to the lake, yet the 
long one by which Speke reached it was the safest. 
He had been in a perilous position, and it was 
clearly his own foresight that saved him. The 
appointment of a courier or swift runner to each 
detachment to act as a telegraph, would probably 
have occurred to few, yet this certainly saved one 
detachment from destruction and how much more 
no one can tell. 

But he was not satisfied with the vengeance he 
had taken and the devastation he had wrought. 
He had resolved to teach those savage negroes a 
lesson on the danger of treachery to strangers, 
and he meant, now he had commenced it, to make 
it thorough and complete, and so next morning he 



224 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 



sent off sixty men to proceed to the farthest end 
of the valley, some eight miles away, and destroy 
what yet remained ; passing on through the ruins 
of the villages, they came to a large village in the 
extreme northeast. A very slight resistance was 
made here, and they entered it and applied the 
torch, and soon it shared the fate of all the rest. 
Before they destroyed it, however, they loaded 
themselves with grain. Provisions were now 
plenty, for the frightened negroes had left every- 
thing behind them in their flight. There was no 
longer any need of purchasing food, the valley 
was depopulated, and all the accumulated pro- 
visions of the inhabitants was at the mercy of 
the victors. Finding he had enough to last the 
expedition six days, Stanley next morning started 
westward before daybreak, and was soon far 
away from this valley of destruction, leaving the 
thoroughly humbled natives to crawl back to the 
ashes of their ruined homes. Without further 
trouble, in three days, he reached Iramba. Here 
he halted and took a calm survey of his condition 
and prospects. He found that out of the more 
than three hundred men with which he had left 
the coast, but one hundred and ninety-four re- 
mained. 

Sickness, desertion and battle had reduced his 
number over a third before he had reached 
the point where his actual labors were to com- 
mence. It was not a pleasant look-out; for, 



CONFIDENCE AMID PERILS. 



225 



although two hundred men, well armed with rifles, 
made a formidable force in a country where only 
arrows and spears were used, still this heavy ratio 
of loss must stop, or the expedition itself must 
fail. He was not in a country where he could 
recruit soldiers, and each one lost was a dead loss, 
and thousands of miles of exploration lay before 
him, in prosecuting which, he knew not how many 
battles would be fought, nor how much sickness 
would have to be encountered. It would not 
seem a difficult piece of arithmetical calculation 
to determine how long three hundred men would 
last if one-third disappeared in three months, or 
how many men it would require to prosecute his 
labors three years. But Stanley never seemed 
to act as though he thought defeat possible. 
Whether his faith was in God, himself, or his star, 
it was nevertheless a strong and controlling faith. 
Still, now and then it is very evident that he was 
perfectly conscious of the desperate nature of his 
condition, and felt disease, which carried off his 
friends and retainers, or the spear, might end, at 
any moment, his explorations and his life. 

Though out of Urimi at last, yet Stanley found 
the natives of Iramba a very little improvement on 
those of the former district. Mirambo was their 
terror, and hence they were suspicious of all 
strangers. Again and again he was mistaken for 
this terrible chieftain, and narrowly escaped being 
attacked. In fact, this formidable warrior was 
J 5 



2 26 ^ v THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

fighting at one time within a day's march of 
him. 

Urukuma was the next district he entered after 
Iramba, and he found it thickly peopled and rich 
in cattle. It consisted for the most part of rolling 
plains, with scattered chains of jagged hills. He 
was on the slope that led to the Nyanza, and the 
descent was so gradual, that he expected to find 
the lake, whose exploration he designed to make 
thorough and complete, comparatively shallow, 
although it covered a vast area. At last he 
reached a little village, not a hundred yards from 
the shore, and encamped. At this point he des- 
cribes the topography of the new country he had 
passed over. He says : 

"As far as Western Ugogo I may pass over 
without attempting to describe the country, as 
readers may obtain a detailed account of it from 
'How I Found Livingstone/' Thence north is a 
new country to all, and a brief description of it 
may be interesting to students of African geo- 
graphy. 

" North of Mizanza a level plain extends as far 
as the frontier of Urandawi, a distance of thirty- 
five miles (English). At Mukondoku the altitude, 
as indicated by. two first-rate aneroids, was two 
thousand, eight hundred feet. At Mtiwi, twenty 
miles north, the altitude was two thousand eight 
hundred and twenty-five feet. Diverging west 
and north-west, we ascend the slope of a lengthy 



IMMENSE TABLE-LANDS. 



227 



mountain-wall, apparently, but which, upon arriv- 
ing at the summit, we ascertain to be a wide pla- 
teau covered with forests. This plateau has an 
altitude of three thousand eight hundred feet at its 
eastern extremity; but, as it extends westward it 
rises to a height of four thousand five hundred 
feet. It embraces all Uyanzi, Unyanyembe, Usu- 
kuma, Urimi and Iramba — in short, all that part of 
Central Africa lying between the valley of the 
Rufiji south and the Victoria Nyanza north, and 
the mean altitude of this broad upland cannot 
exceed four thousand five hundred feet. From 
Mizanza to the Nyanza is a distance 6( nearly three 
hundred geographical miles; yet, at no part of this 
long journey did the aneroids indicate a higher 
altitude than five thousand one hundred feet above 
the sea. 

"As far as Urimi, from the eastern edge of the 
plateau, the land is covered with a dense jungle 
of acacias, which, by its density, strangles all other 
species of vegetation. Here and there, only in 
the cleft of a rock, a giant euphorbia may be seen, 
sole lord of its sterile domain. The soil is shal- 
low, and consists of vegetable mould, mixed largely 
with sand and detritus of the bare rocks, which 
crown each knoll and ridge, and which testify too 
plainly to the violence of the periodical rains. 

"In the basin of Matongo, in Southern Urimi) 
we were instructed by the ruins and ridges, relics 
of a loftier upland, of what has been effected by 



2 28 IJST THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

nature in the course of long- ages. No learned 
geological savant need ever expound to the 
traveler who views these rocky ruins, the geolo- 
gical history of this country. From a distance we 
viewed the glistening naked and riven rocks as a 
singular scene ; but when we stood among them, 
and noted the appearance of the rocky fragments 
of granite, gneiss and porphyry peeled as it were 
rind after rind, or leaf after leaf, like an artichoke, 
until the rock was wasted away, it seemed as if 
Dame Nature has left these relics, these hilly 
skeletons, to demonstrate her laws and career. 
It seemed to me as if she said, 'Lo, and behold 
this broad basin of Matongfo, with its teemine vil- 
lages and herds of cattle and fields of corn, sur- 
rounded by these bare rocks — in primeval time 
this land was covered with water, it was the bed 
of a vast sea. The waters were dried, leaving a 
wide expanse of level land, upon which I caused 
heavy rains to fall five months out of each year 
during all the ages that have elapsed since first 
the hot sunshine fell upon the soil. The rains 
washed away the loose sand and made deep fur- 
rows in course of time, until in certain places the 
rocky kernel under the soil began to appear. 
The furrows became enlarged, the waters frittered 
away their banks and conveyed the earth away to 
lower levels, through which it wore away a chan- 
nel, first through the soil and lastly through the 
rock itself, which you may see if you but walk to 



GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. 2 20 

the bottom of that basin. You will there behold 
a channel worn through the solid rock some fifty 
feet in depth; and as you look on that you will 
have some idea of the power and force of the 
tropical rains. It is through that channel that the 
soil robbed from these rocks has been carried 
away toward the Nyanza to fill its depths and in 
time make dry land of it. Now you may ask how 
came these once solid rocks, which are now but 
skeletons of hills and stony heaps, to be thus split 
into so many fragments? Have you never seen 
the effect of water thrown upon lime? The solid 
rocks have been broken or peeled in an almost 
similar manner. The tropic sun heated the face 
of these rocks to an intense heat, and the cold 
rain falling upon the heated surface caused them 
to split and peel as you see them.' 

" This is really the geological history of this 
region simply told. Ridge after ridge, basin after 
basin, from Western Ugogo to the Nyanza, tells 
the same tale ; but it is not until we enter Central 
Urimi, that we begin to marvel at the violence of 
the process by which nature has transformed the 
face of the land. For here the perennial springs 
and rivulets begin to unite and form rivers, after 
collecting and absorbing .the moisture from the 
water-shed ; and these rivers, though but gentle 
streams during the dry season, become formidable 
during the rains. It is in Central Urimi that the 
Nile first begins to levy tribute upon Equatorial 



23O LN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

Africa, and if you look upon the map and draw 
a lir>e east from the latitude of Ujiji to longitude 
thirty-five degrees you will strike upon the sources 
of the Leewumbu, which is the extreme southern 
feeder of the Victoria Nyanza. 

" In Iramba, between Mgongo Tembo and Mom- 
biti, we came upon what must have been in former 
times an arm of the Victoria Nyanza. It is called 
the Lumamberri Plain, after a river of that name, 
and is about forty miles in width. Its altitude is 
three thousand seven hundred and seventy-five 
feet above the sea and but a few feet above Vic- 
toria Nyanza. We were fortunate in crossing the 
broad, shallow stream in the dry season, for dur- 
ing the masika or rainy season the plain is con- 
verted into a wide lake. 

"The Leewumbu River, after a course of a 
hundred and seventy-five miles, becomes known 
as the Monaugh River, in Usukuma. After an- 
other run of a hundred miles, it is converted into 
Shimeeyu, under which name it enters the Vic- 
toria east of this port of Kagehyi. Roughly the 
Shimeeyu may be said to have a length of three 
hundred and fifty miles." 



CHAPTER XII. 

EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA. 

STANLEY felt, as he stood and looked off on 
the broad expanse of water, like one who 
had achieved a great victory, and he said 
that the wealth of the universe could not then 
bribe him to turn back from his work. The boat 
of a white man had never been launched on its 
surface, and he longed to see the Lady Alice afloat, 
that he might change the guesses of Livingstone, 
Speke and others, into certainty. He had started 
to complete Livingstone's unfinished work, and 
now he was in a fair way to do it. How much 
Cameron, who was somewhere in the interior on 
the same mission, had accomplished, he did not 
know, he only knew that with no boat at his com- 
mand, like the Lady Alice, that he had transported 
through so many hundreds of miles of jungle, his 
movements would be very much crippled. 

He now mustered his entire force, to see what 
he had to rely on before setting out, and found it 
to consist of three white men and one hundred 
and six Wanguana soldiers, twenty-eight having 
died since leaving Itwru thirty days before, or at 
an average of nearly one a day. This was a 
gloomy prospect. Before beginning his real work 

231 



2 -, 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

one-half of his entire expedition had disappeared. 
Dysentery had been the great scourge that had 
thinned their ranks so fearfully. Stanley in the 
first place was not a physician, while even those 
remedies which ordinarily might have proved ef- 
ficacious were rendered well-nigh useless by the 
necessity of constant marching. Rest alone would 
have cured a great many, but he felt compelled to 
march. Whether the necessity for marching with 
the rapidity he did, was sufficiently urgent to justify 
him in sacrificing so many lives, he doubtless is 
the best judge. These poor men were not ac- 
customed to travel at the rate he kept them mov- 
ing. Had they marched as leisurely as an Arab 
caravan, they would have been nine months or a 
year in making the distance which Stanley had ac- 
complished in the short space of one hundred and 
three days. 

He was at last on the lake that Baker hoped to 
reach with his steam vessels, and here he expected 
to meet Gordon, his successor, but he evidently 
had not yet arrived, for the natives told him that 
no boats had been seen on the water. They re- 
lated strange tales, however, of the people inhab- 
iting the shores. One told him of a race of 
dwarfs, another of a tribe of giants, another still 
of a people who kept a breed of dogs so large 
that even Stanley's mastiffs were small in com- 
parison. How much or little of this was true, he, 
of course, could not tell, still it excited his curi- 



EXPL OR A TIONS. 2 „ 

osity, and increased his desire to explore die 
country. 

He reached the lake on the 28th of February, 
and in eight days had everything ready, and 
launched his boat. He selected ten good oars- 
men, who, with the steersman and himself, com- 
posed the boat's crew, and the whole force with 
which he was to overcome all the difficulties that 
he might encounter. 

The camp was left in charge of Frank Pocoke 
and young Barker. Naming the large body of 
water, into which the Shimeeyu and Ruano Rivers 
flowed, Speke Bay, in honor of the distinguished 
explorer, he sailed east along the irregular coast. 
To-day passing a district thinly populated, to- 
morrow a rugged hill country, through which the 
elephants wandered in immense droves, and of 
course, thronged with elephant hunters, he passed 
various tribes, until he came to the mouth of the 
Ruano River, discharging a large volume of water 
into Speke Bay, but nothing in comparison with 
the Shimeeyu and the Kagera, the two great river 
supplies of the lake. The former is the largest 
of all, and at its mouth a mile wide. Its length is 
three hundred and seventy miles and is, he says, 
the extreme southern source of the Nile. • 

The water he named Speke Bay is on the north- 
eastern side, and where he crossed it about twelve 
miles wide. Sterile plains succeeded barren 
mountains, thin lines of vegetation along the 



2 ^4 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

borders of the lake alone giving space for cultiva- 
tion, came and went until they reached the great 
island of Ukerewe, divided from the mainland 
only by a narrow channel. This was a true oasis, 
for it was covered with herds of cattle, and ver- 
due, and fruits, and rich in ivory. He found the 
king an amiable man, and his subjects a peaceful, 
commercial people. Although this was a large 
island, more than forty miles long, the king owned 
several of the neighboring islands. Nothing of 
importance occurred on this voyage, as day after 
day they wound in and out along the deeply cor- 
rugated coast or sailed by islands, the people on 
shore all being friendly. They at length came in 
sight of the high table-land of Majita, which Speke 
thought to be an island, but which Stanley demon- 
strated, by actual survey, to be only a promontory. 
It rises some three thousand feet above the level 
of the lake, and is surrounded by low brown plains, 
which, to the distant observer, resemble water. 

Stanley continued his course along the eastern 
shore of the lake, proceeding northerly, and at 
last reached the coast of the Uriri country, a dis- 
trict of pastoral land dotted over with fine cattle. 
Bordering on this is Ugegeya, a land of fables and 
wonders, the "El Dorado" of slave hunters and 
traders in ivory. It is the natural home of the 
elephant, which is found here in great numbers. 
In crossing a broad bay he first got sight of it, 
rising in a series of tall mountains before him. 



JOURNAL OF THE EXPLORATIONS. 2 ~c 

From their base the country rolls away to the east 
in one vast plain twenty-five miles wide, over which 
roam great herds of cattle, getting their own liv- 
ing and furnishing plenty of meat to the indolent 
inhabitants. Stanley constantly inquired of the 
natives concerning the country inland, its character 
and people, and was told many wonderful stories, 
in which it was impossible to say how much fable 
was mixed. Among other things, they reported 
that about fifteen days' march from this place, 
were mountains that spouted forth fire at times 
and smoke. 

Keeping north, he says: "We pass between 
the Island Ugingo and the gigantic mountains of 
Ugegeya, at whose base the Lady Alice seems to 
crawl like a mite in a huge cheese, while we on 
board admire the stupendous height, and wonder 
at the deathly silence which prevails in this soli- 
tude, where the boisterous winds are hushed and 
the turbulent waves are as tranquil as a summer 
dream. The natives, as they pass, regard this 
spot with superstition, as well they might, for the 
silent majesty of these dumb, tall mounts awes the 
very storms to peace. Let the tempests bluster 
as they may on the spacious main beyond the 
cape, in this nook, sheltered by tall Ugingo isle 
and lofty Goshi in the mainland, they inspire no 
fear. It is this refuge which Goshi promises the 
distressed canoemen that causes them to sing 
praises of Goshi, and to cheer one another when 



236 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

wearied and benighted, that Goshi is near to pro- 
tect them." 

Sailing in and out among- the clustering islands, 
they see two low isolated islands in the distance, 
and make toward them to camp there for the 
night. " There," says Stanley, " under the over- 
spreading branches of a mangrove tree we dream 
of unquiet waters, and angry surfs, and threaten- 
ing rocks, to find ourselves next morning tied to 
an island, which, from its peculiarity, I called 
Bridge Island. While seeking a road to ascend 
the island, to take bearings, I discovered a natural 
bridge of basalt, about twenty feet in length and 
twelve in breadth, under which one might repose 
comfortably, and from one side see the waves 
lashed to fury and spend their strength on the 
stubborn rocks, which form the foundation of the 
arch, while from the other we could see the boat, 
secure under the lee of the island, resting on a 
serene and placid surface, and shaded by man- 
grove branches from the hot sun of the equator. 
Its neighborhood is remarkable only for a small 
cave, the haunt of fishermen." After taking a 
survey of the neighboring mainland, he hoisted 
sail and scudded along the coast before a freshen- 
ing breeze. At noon he found himself, by obser- 
vation, to be under the equator. Seeing an open- 
ing in the lake that looked like the mouth of a 
river, he sailed into it to find it was only a deep 
bay. Coming in sight of a village, he anchored 



NA VIGA TING THE LAKE. „n 

near it and tried to make friends with some wild- 
looking fishermen on the shore, but the naked 
savages only "stared at them from under pent- 
houses of hair, and hastily stole away to tell their 
families of the strange apparition they had seen." 
This sail of one hundred miles alone the coast 
of this vast lake, though somewhat monotonous 
and tame in its details to the reader, furnished 
one of the most interesting episodes in Stanley's 
life — not because the scenery was new and beauti- 
ful, but because he, with his white sail, and fire- 
arms, and strange dress, was as strange and won- 
derful to these natives as was Columbus, with his 
ship, and cannon, and cavaliers to the inhabitants 
of the New World. Though often differing in ap- 
pearance, and language, and manner, they were 
almost uniformly friendly, and . in the few cases 
where they proved hostile, they were drunk, 
which makes civilized men, as well as savages, 
quarrelsome. It was frequently very difficult to 
win their confidence, and often Stanley would 
spend hours in endeavoring to remove their sus- 
picions. In this wild, remote home, their lives 
pass on without change, each generation treading 
in the footsteps of the preceding one — no pro- 
gress, no looking forward to increased knowledge 
or new developments. There were no new dis- 
coveries to arouse their mental faculties, no aspira- 
tions for a better condition, and they were as 
changeless as their tropical climate. Hence, to 



2 3 8 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



them the sudden appearance of this strange phe- 
nomenon on their beautiful lake could not be 
accounted for. It had seemingly dropped from 
the clouds, and at the first discharge of a pistol 
they were startled and filled with amazement. 

Stanley, whether rowing or sailing, kept close 
to the shore, that nothing worthy of note should 
escape him, frequently landing to ascertain the 
name of the district he was in, the bays he crossed, 
the mountains he saw, and the rivers that emptied 
into the lake. In short, he omitted nothing which 
was necessary to a complete survey and know- 
ledge of this hitherto unknown body of water. 

After leaving this bay, they came in a short 
time to a river which was full of hippopotami. 
Two huge fellows swam so near the boat that 
Stanley was afraid they would attack it, and 
ordered the men to pull away from them. 
Although hunting these huge beasts might be 
very exciting sport, and a tolerably safe one in 
boats properly built, to expose the Lady Alice, 
with her slender cedar sides, to their tusks would 
have been a piece of folly close akin to madness. 
Her safety was of more consequence than all the 
hippopotami in Africa. He was an explorer, not 
a hunter ; and to risk all the future of the former 
to gratify the pleasure of the latter would have 
shown him unfit to command so important an 
expedition as this. Like the boat that carried 
Caesar and his fortunes, the Lady Alice bore in 



A NARROW ESCAPE. 2 T,Q 

her frail sides destines greater than the imagi- 
nation can conceive. So hoisting sail they caught 
the freshening breeze and flew along the ever- 
changing shore lined with villages, out of which 
swarmed a vast crowd of people, showing a much 
more densely populated district than they had yet 
seen. He found the name of it to be Mahita ; 
and wishing to learn the names of some of the 
villages he saw, the boat was turned toward shore 
and anchored within fifty yards of it, but with a 
cable long enough to let them drift to within a few 
feet of it. Some half a dozen men wearing small 
shells above their elbows and a circle round their 
heads came down to the beach, opening a conver- 
sation with them. Stanley learned the name of 
the country, but they refused to tell him anything 
more till he landed. While getting ready to do 
so, he noticed the numbers on the shore increased 
with astonishing rapidity, and seemed to be greatly 
excited. This aroused his suspicions, and he 
ordered the rowers to pull off again. It was 
lucky he did, for he had scarcely put three lengths 
between him and the shore, when suddenly out of 
the bushes on each side of the spot where he was 
to land arose a forest of spears. 

Stanley did not intend to go away entirely, but 
lie off till they became less excited, but this evi- 
dence of treachery caused him to change his mind, 
and he ordered the sail to be hoisted, and moved 
away toward a point at the mouth of the cove, 



2 a IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

which, with the wind as it was blowing, they could 
but little more than clear. The negroes seeing 
this, sent up a loud shout, and hurried off to reach 
it before the boat did. Stanley penetrating their 
design, ordered the sail to be lowered and the 
rowers to pull dead to windward. The discom- 
fited savages looked on in amazement to see the 
prize slip through their fingers so easily. It was 
a narrow escape, for had Stanley landed, he would 
doubtless have been overpowered and killed be- 
fore he could use his weapons. 

It was now late in the afternoon, and the sav- 
ages made no attempt to follow them, and at dusk, 
coming to a small island, they tied up and camped 
for the night, lulled to sleep by the murmur of the 
waves on the beach. 

The next day continuing their course, they at 
last sailed into the bay, which forms the north- 
eastern extremity of the Victoria Nyanza. The 
eastern side of this bay is lined with bold hills 
and ridees, but at the extreme end where the 
Tagama River comes in, the country is flat. The 
expedition now began to move westward in its 
slow circumnavigation of the lake, and came at 
length to Muiwanda. Here they found the sav- 
ages friendly, and they landed and obtained from 
them, at fair prices, such provisions and vege- 
tables as they desired. They also gave Stanley 
all the information they could of the neighboring- 
country. They told him that the name of the bay 



REVIEWING THE ROUTE. 2 * I 

in which they rode, and which was the extreme 
northern limit of the lake, was Baringo. They 
had evidently not been great travelers or much 
visited by any tribes living away from their own 
coast, for they said that they had never heard of 
any other lake, great or small, except that one — 
the Nyanza. Considering that this whole central 
region of Africa is dotted with lakes, and that the 
Tanganika, an inland sea, is not three hundred 
miles distant, it is evident they must live very 
much isolated from any but their own people. 
Stanley had now surveyed the southern, eastern 
and northeastern shores of the lake, and had taken 
thirty-seven observations and entered almost 
every nook and cove of this vast body of water. 
He had corrected the map of Speke, made on the 
report of the natives — proved that he was wrong 
in his latitude of the lake, and taken such ample 
notes that he could make out an accurate chart 
of that portion he had thus traversed. He makes 
the extreme eastern point of the lake end in 34 
35' east longitude, and ^Z' 43" north latitude. 

After he had finished his exploration thus far, 
Stanley went over his route, to gain a general 
knowledge of the country, the location and ap- 
proximate size of the various districts, and general 
character of the inhabitants. The north shore he 
found indented with deep bays, and so completely 
land-locked, that they might easily be mistaken 
for separate lakes, while the islands clustered 
16 



242 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



so thickly and closely to the shore that unless 
thoroughly examined, would be taken for portions 
of the mainland. But Stanley has traced it out 
so plainly, that the outline of the shore is as dis- 
tinct as that of Lake Ontario. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA. 

THE voyage continued along the northern 
and then along the western shore of the 
lake, revealing at almost every turn new 
features of scenery and some new formation of 
land or new characteristic of the people, till the 
journey was like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. 
A tribe friendly and trusting would be succeeded 
by one suspicious or treacherous, so that it was 
impossible to be governed by any general rule, 
and Stanley was compelled to be constantly on 
the alert, watching the motions of each tribe with- 
out reference to the actions of the last, and laying 
his plans accordingly. He continued his course 
down the western shore toward his camp from 
which he started, finding this side more densely 
populated than the others, and the tribes that oc- 
cupied it of a more independent, fearless char- 
acter, and more inclined to hostilities. 

At Uvuma, an independent country and the 
largest on the Victoria Nyanza, the hostility took 
a more determined form. The natives made signs 
of friendship to induce Stanley's party to come 
near the shore. They did so, sailing up to within 
a few yards of it. At that point a large number 

243 



244 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

of natives were hid behind the trees, who sud- 
denly emerged and hurled a shower of huge 
stones at the boat in order to sink it. Stanley 
instantly ordered the helm to be put hard up, and 
the boat was quickly steered away from the dan- 
gerous spot, but not before Stanley, enraged at this 
act of treachery, leveled his revolver at the 
wretches and dropped one of them. 

Going on some miles farther, they entered a 
channel between some islands and the shore, 
where they discovered a fleet of canoes, thirteen 
in number, with over one hundred warriors in them, 
armed with shells, and spears, and slings. The 
foremost one had some sweet potatoes aboard, 
which one of the natives held up as though he 
wished to trade. Stanley ordered the crew to 
cease rowing, but as the breeze was light the sail 
was kept up, and the progress was so slow that 
this canoe soon came up. While he was bargain- 
ing for the potatoes, the other boats approached 
and completely surrounded the Lady Alice and 
began to reach over and seize everything they 
could lay hands on. Stanley warned them away 
with his gun, when they jeered at him and im- 
mediately seized their spears, while one man held 
up a string of beads he had stolen and dared 
Stanley to catch him. With that promptness which 
has many a time saved his life, the latter drew his 
revolver and shot the villain dead. Spears in- 
stantly flashed in the air, but Stanley seizing his 



SOURCE OF THE NILE. 

2 45 

repeating rifle poured shot after shot into them, 
knocking over three of them in as many seconds, 
when the amazed warriors turned in flight. He 
then seized his elephant rifle and began to pour its 
heavy shot into their canoes, throwing them into 
the wildest confus'ion. As they now continued on 
their way, an occasional shot from the big gun 
waked the echoes of the shore to announce be- 
forehand what treatment treachery would receive. 

As they kept on to the northward, they felt the 
current drawing them on, and soon they came to 
the Ripon Falls, their foam and thunder contrast- 
ing strangely with the quietness of the lake a short 
time before, and the silence and tranquility of the 
scene. It was the Nile starting on its long journey 
to the Mediterranean, fertilizing Egypt in its course. 
Coasting westerly, they came to the island of 
Krina, where they obtained guides to conduct 
them to King Mtesa, the most renowned king of 
the whole region. Sending messengers to an- 
nounce to the king his arrival, Stanley continued 
to coast along Uganda, everywhere treated with 
kindness, so far as words went, but very niggardly 
in fact. 

He here observed a curious phenomenon. He 
discovered an inlet in which there was a percepti- 
ble tide, the water flowing north for two hours 
and then south for the same length of time. On 
asking the guides if this was usual, they said yes, 
and it was common to all the inlets on the coast 



246 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



of Uganda. At Beya they were welcomed by 
a fleet of canoes sent to conduct them to the 
king. 

On the 4th of April, Stanley landed, amid the 
waving of flags, volleys of musketry and shouts 
of two thousand people, assembled to receive him. 
The chief officer then conducted him to comfort- 
able quarters, where, soon after, sixteen goats, ten 
oxen, with bananas, sweet potatoes, plantains, 
chickens, rice, milk, butter, etc., etc., in profuse 
quantities were sent him. 

In the afternoon, the king sent word to his guest, 
that he was ready to receive him. Issuing from 
his quarters, Stanley found himself in a street 
eighty feet broad and half a mile long, lined with 
the personal guards, officers, attendants and re- 
tinue of the king, to the number of three thousand. 
At the farther end of this avenue was the king's 
residence, and as Stanley advanced he could dimly 
see the form of the king in the entrance, sitting in 
a chair. At every step volleys of musketry were 
fired and flags waved, while sixteen drums beaten 
together kept up a horrible din. As he ap- 
proached the house, the king, a tall, slender 
figure, dressed in Arab costume, arose and ad- 
vancing held out his hand in silence, while the 
drums kept up their loud tattoo. They looked 
on each other in silence. Stanley was greatly 
embarrassed by the novelty of the situation, but 
soon the king, taking a seat, asked him to be 



KING MTESA. 2 &Q 

seated also, while a hundred of his captains fol- 
lowed their example. 

Lifting his eyes to the king, Stanley saw a tall 
and slender man, but with broad, powerful shoul- 
ders. His eyes were large, his face intelligent and 
amiable, while his mouth and nose were a great 
improvement on those of the ordinary negro, 
being more like those of a Persian Arab. As 
soon as he began to speak, Stanley was captivated 
by his courteous, affable manner. He says that 
he was infinitely superior to the sultan of Zanzi- 
bar, and impressed you as a colored gentleman 
who had learned his manners by contact with 
civilized, cultivated men, instead of being, as he 
was, a native of Central Africa, who had seen 
but three white men before in his life. Stan- 
ley was astonished at his innate polish and he felt 
he had found a friend in this great king of this 
part of the country, where the tribal territories are 
usually so small. His kingdom extends through 
three degrees of longitude and almost as many of 
latitude. He professes Islamism now, and no 
cruelties are practised in his kingdom. He has a 
guard of two hundred men, renegades from 
Baker's expedition, defalcators from Zanzibar, and 
the elite of his own kingdom. 

Behind his throne or arm-chair, stood his gun- 
bearers, shield-bearers and lance-bearers, and on 
either side were arranged his chief courtiers, gov- 
ernors of provinces, etc., while outside streamed 



250 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



away the long line of his warriors, beginning with 
the drummers and goma-beaters. Mtesa asked 
many intelligent questions, and Stanley found that 
this was not his home, but that he had come there 
with that immense throng of warriors to shoot 
birds. In two or three days, he proposed to 
return to his capital at Ulagala or Uragara (it is 
difficult to tell which is right). The first day, for 
Stanley's entertainment, the king gave a grand 
naval review with eighty canoes, which made quite 
an imposing display, which the king with his three 
hundred wives and Stanley viewed from shore. 
The crews consisted of two thousand five hundred 
men or more. The second day, the king led his 
fleet in person to show his prowess in shooting 
birds. The third day, the troops were exercised 
in general military movements and at target prac- 
tice, and on the fourth, the march was taken up 
for the capital. 

In Mtesa Stanley sees the hope of Central 
Africa. He is a natural born king and tries to 
imitate the 'manners, as he understands them, of 
European monarchs. He has constructed broad 
roads which will be ready for vehicles whenever 
they are introduced. The road they traveled in- 
creased from twenty to one hundred and fifty feet 
as they approached the capital, which crowned a 
commanding eminence overlooking a beautiful 
country covered with tropical fruit and trees. 
Huts are not very imposing, but a tall flagstaff and 



ROYALL Y ENTERTAINED. 



251 



an immense flag gave some dignity to the sur- 
roundings. 

The capital is composed of a vast collection of 
huts on an eminence crowned by the royal quar- 
ters, around which run five several palisades and 
circular courts, between which and the city runs a 
circular road from one hundred to two hundred 
feet in width, from whence radiate six or seven 
magnificent avenues lined with gardens and 
huts. 

The next day, Stanley was introduced into the 
palace in state. The guards were clothed in white 
cotton dresses, while the chiefs were attired in 
rich Arab costumes. This palace was a large, 
lofty structure built of grass and cane, while tall 
trunks of trees upheld the roof — covered inside 
with cloth sheeting. On the fourth day, the ex- 
citing- news was received that another white man 
was approaching the capital. It proved to be 
Colonel Lerant de Bellfonds of the Egyptian ser- 
vice, who had been dispatched by Colonel Gordon 
to make a treaty of commerce with the king and 
the khedive of Egypt. 

This Mtesa, we said, was a Mohammedan, hav- 
ing been converted by Khamis Ben Abdullah some 
four or five years before. This Arab, from Mus- 
cat, was a man of magnificent presence, of noble 
descent, and very rich, and dressed in splendid 
Oriental costume. Mtesa became fascinated'with 
him, and the latter stayed with the king over a 



252 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

year, giving him royal presents and dressing him 
in ororo^eous attire. 

No wonder this brilliant stranger became to 
such a heathen a true missionary. But Stanley, 
in a conversation with the king, soon upset his 
new faith, and he agreed a t once to observe the 
Christian as well as the Moslem Sabbath, to which 
his captains also agreed. He, moreover, caused 
the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, 
and the Golden Rule, "Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself," to be written on a board for his 
daily perusal. In stating this remarkable fact, 
Stanley says; "Though I am no missionary, I shall 
begin to think I may become one if such success 
is so feasible;" and exclaims, "Oh, that some 
pious, practical missionary would come here. 
What a field and harvest, ripe for the sickle of 
the Gospel. Mtesa would give him everything 
he desired — houses, cattle, lands, ivory, etc. He 
might call a province his own in one day." But he 
says he must not be a theological one, nor a mis- 
sionary of creeds, but a practical Christian, tied to 
no church or sect, but simply profess God and His 
Son, and live a blameless life and be able to in- 
struct the people in building houses, cultivating 
land, and in all those things that make up human 
civilization. Such a man, Stanley says, would be- 
come the temporal saviour of Africa. Mtesa 
begged Stanley to tell such men to come, and he 
would give them all they wanted. 



THE NEEDED MISSIONARY. 



2 53 



The subjects of this heathen king number not 
far from two millions, and Stanley affirms that one 
good missionary among them would accomplish 
more toward the regeneration of Africa in one 
year than all other missionaries on the continent 
put together. He suggests that the mission 
should bring to Mtesa several suits of military 
clothes, heavily embroidered, pistols, swords, din- 
ner-service, etc., etc. This sounds rather strange 
to the modern missionary, and seems like trusting 
too much to " carnal weapons," but it is eminently 
practical. Anything to give the missionary a firm 
footing on which to begin his labors is desirable, 
if not wrong in itself or leading to wrong. For 
its own use the mission should, he says, bring also 
hammers, saws, augers, drills for blasting, and 
blacksmith and carpenter-tools, etc., etc. In short, 
the missionary should not attempt to convert the 
black man to his religious views simply by preach- 
ing Christ, but that civilization, the hand-maiden 
of religion, should move side by side with it in 
equal step. The practical effect of the mission- 
ary work, in order to influence the natives, must 
not be merely a moral change, which causes the 
convert to abjure the rites and follies of Pagan- 
ism, but to lift the entire people, whether converted 
or not to Christianity, to a higher plane of civili- 
zation. We know there are different theories on 
this subject, but we think that Stanley's mode 
might safely be tried. It was tried, after a fashion, 



254 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



almost immediately, but the station has been 
broken up and the missionaries murdered. 

Perhaps it is as good a place here as anywhere 
to correct a wrong statement that has been going 
the rounds of the papers, which puts Stanley in a 
false light. It was not pretended that King Mtesa 
had anything to do with this outrage, but that a 
tribe with which Stanley had had a fight, killing 
some of its number, committed it in revenge for 
what he did. The truth is, the mission was esta- 
blished by enthusiasts, and some three or four 
started with false views and hopes entirely. Only 
two of them reached the ground, one of them not 
being a minister. They were, however, well re- 
ceived, and allowed to go to work. The king, or 
chief of a neighboring tribe, had a daughter with 
whom a native fell in love. This man was repug- 
nant to the father, and he refused to let him have 
his daughter for a wife. The consequence was 
they eloped and fled to the island on which the 
missionaries were stationed, and placed themselves 
under their protection and remained with them. 
The enraged savage heard of this, and doubtless 
believing that the missionaries had connived at 
the elopement — certainly harbored the fugitives 
against his wish — attacked the station and mur- 
dered the missionaries. How much or how little 
they were to blame, or, if not guilty of any wrong, 
how unwisely they acted, they unfortunately do 
not live to tell us. But Stanley's conduct in that 



WILD JUSTICE. 



255 



region had nothing to do with the tragedy. It 
was an act of wild justice by an enraged and 
savage chieftain, and militates in no way against 
carrying out the project of Stanley. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

EXPLORATION OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA. 

*~ ^HOUGH this royal hospitality was very 
grateful after his long toils, and though 

-*~ intercourse with a white man in that re- 
mote land was refreshing, and though he longed 
to rest, yet Stanley felt he must be about his work. 
To finish this would require much time, and he 
had now been long absent from his men, who 
might prove intractable while he was away, and he 
was anxious to get back, for the exploration of 
this lake was only the beginning of what he pro- 
posed to do. 

With two canoes belonging to his friend, King 
Mtesa, accompanying him as an escort until the 
grand admiral of his sable majesty, Magassa, who, 
with thirty canoes, had been detached for his 
service, should overtake him, he set sail from the 
river, and camped that night on a smooth, sandy 
beach, at a point called Kagya. The natives who 
lived there received them in a friendly, and for 
African negroes, hospitable manner. Stanley 
took this as a good augury of the reception he 
should meet with along the coast of Usongora, 
which he designed to explore. 

In the morning he again set sail, and sweeping 

(256) 



A NIGHT SURPRISE. 



257 



leisurely along, came in the afternoon to the vil- 
lage of Makongo. As the Lady Alice approached 
the shore, he saw a crowd of naked savages 
squatted on the ground, sucking the everlasting 
pombe, or beer, through a straw, just as white 
men suck punch or a sherry cobbler. As the boat 
reached the shore, the chief, with the vacant stare 
of a drunkard, arose and reeled toward him and 
welcomed him in a friendly, though maudlin man- 
ner. The natives also appeared good-natured 
and quite content with their arrival. After they 
had satisfied their curiosity by examining him and 
his boat, they went away, leaving him to arrange 
his camp for the night and prepare his supper. 

The sun went down in glory beyond the purple 
mountains — a slight ripple dimpled the surface of 
the lake, while slender columns of smoke ascended 
here "and there along the shore from the huts of 
the natives ; and all was calm and peaceful, though 
wild and lonely. As night came down, and the 
stars, one by one, came out in the tropical sky, 
Stanley and his companions stretched themselves 
on their mats, and, unsuspicious of danger, fell 
asleep. About 10 o'clock he was suddenly 
awakened by a loud and hurried beating of drums, 
with ever and anon a chorus of shrieks and yells 
that rung through the clear, still air with a distinct- 
ness and sharpness that made the blood shiver. 
Stanley immediately aroused his men, and they 
listened, wondering what it foreboded. The lake 
17 



258 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



was still below, and the heavens calm and serene 
above, but all around it seemed as if demons of 
the infernal regions were out on their orgies. 
Stanley thought it was the forerunner of an attack 
on the camp, but Mtesa's men, the Waganda, told 
him that the drumming and yelling were the wild 
welcome of the natives to a stranger. He doubted 
it, for he had seen too many savage tribes, and 
knew their customs too well to believe this blood- 
curdling, discordant din was a welcome to him. 

It is strange that he did not at once quietly 
launch his boat and lie off the rest of the night a 
little way from the shore till morning, and see 
what it all meant. It would seem that ordinary 
prudence would have prompted this. His neglect 
to do so, very nearly cost him his life, and ended 
there his explorations. For some reason or other, 
which he does not give, he determined to remain 
where he was, contenting himself with the pre- 
caution of placing his weapons close beside him, 
and directing his eleven men to load their guns and 
put them under their mats. He lay down again, 
but not to sleep, for all night long the furious beat 
of drums and unearthly yells rang out over the 
lake keeping him not only awake, but anxious. 

At daybreak he arose, and as he stepped out of 
his tent, he started as if he had seen an apparition, 
for in the gray light of morning, he saw five hun- 
dred naked, motionless forms, with bows, shields 
and spears, standing in a semicircle around him, 



A NARROW ESCAPE. 



259 



and completely cutting him off from his boat and 
the lake. It was a fearful moment, and to his 
inquiry what it meant, no answer was given. 
There was no shouting or yelling, none of the 
frantric gesticulations so common to the African 
savage. On the contrary, they wore a calm and 
composed, though stern and determined aspect. 
Shoulder to shoulder like a regiment of soldiers 
they stood, the forest of spears above them glitter- 
ing in the early light. There was nothing to be 
done— Stanley was entrapped, and with the first 
attempt to escape or seize his rifle would be trans- 
fixed by a hundred spears. It was too late to re- 
pent the folly of not heeding the warning of the 
night before, and so he calmly stood and faced 
the crowd of stern, malignant faces. For some 
minutes this solitary white man met glance for 
glance, when the drunken chief of the day before 
stalked into the semicircle, and with a stick which 
he held in his hand forced back the savages by 
flourishing it in their faces. He then advanced, 
and striking the boat a furious blow, shouted " be 
off/' and to facilitate matters, took hold and 
helped launch it. Stanley was only too glad to 
obey him, and his heart bounded within him as he 
felt the keel gliding into deep water, and soon a 
hundred rods were between him and the savages 
that lined the shore. The Waeanda were still on 
the beach, and Stanley prepared to sweep it with 
a murderous fire the moment they were attacked. 



2 6o IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

So dense was the crowd of natives, that had he 
fired at that close range, he would have mowed 
them down with fearful slaughter. But although 
there was much loud wrangling and altercation, 
they were, at length, allowed to embark, and fol- 
lowed him as he sailed away toward the isle of 
Musua. He had learned a lesson that he did not 
soon forget. 

The whole had been a strange proceeding, and 
why he was not killed, when so completely in their 
power, can be accounted for only on the ground 
that they were in Mtesa's dominions, and feared 
he would take terrible revenge for the murder. 
Later in the day this drunken chief came to visit 
him on the island, and demanded why he had 
come and what he wanted. Being told, he went 
away, and sent three branches of bananas, and left 
him and his party to their fate. They rested here 
quietly till afternoon, when they saw Magassa's 
fleet coming slowly down the lake, steering for a 
neighboring island. The canoes were beached 
and the men disembarked and began to prepare 
their camp for the night. Stanley was getting 
impatient at these delays, and thinking he would 
quicken Magassa's movements by hastening for- 
ward, he set sail for Alice Island, thirty-five miles 
distant. The two chiefs, with the escorting canoes> 
accompanied him for about a mile and a half, but, 
getting alarmed at the aspect of the weather, 
turned back, shouting, as they did so, that as soon 



IN A STORM. 261 

as it moderated they would follow. Bowling along 
before a spanking breeze, the little craft danced 
gayly over the cresting waves, and when night 
came down and darkness fell on the lonely lake, 
kept steadily on and, finally, at midnight reached 
the island, where they luckily struck upon a 
sheltered cove and came to anchor. When morn- 
ing dawned they found they were almost against 
the base of a beetling cliff, with overhanging rocks 
all around them, dotted with the fires of the na- 
tives. These came down to the shore holding 
green wisps of grass in their hands as tokens of 
friendliness. Stanley and his men were hungry, 
and now rejoiced in the prospect of a good break- 
fast. But these friendly natives, seeing their need, 
became so extortionate in their demands that they 
would not trade with them, and Stanley determined 
to steer for Bumbirch Island, twenty five miles dis- 
tant, and there obtain food. 

The breeze was light and they made slow head- 
way, and it was evidently going to be a long sail 
to the island. As the sun went down, huge black 
clouds began to roll up the sky, traversed by 
lightning, while the low growl of thunder foretold 
a coming storm. As the clouds rose higher and 
higher the lightning became more vivid, and the 
thunder broke with startling peals along the water, 
and soon the rain came down in torrents, drench- 
ing them to the skin. The waves began to rise 
while darkness, black as midnight, settled down 



2 62 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 

on the lake. The little craft tossed wildly on the 
water, and the prospect before them looked gloomy 
enough. Fortunately, about midnight, they came 
upon Pocoke Island, and anchored under its lee 
amid thunder and lightning, and rain, and the angry 
roar of the surf on every side. All night long the 
flashes lit up the angry scene, while the heavy, 
tropical thunder shook the bosom of the lake. 
The haven they had reached was so poor a pro- 
tection that all hands were kept bailing, to pre- 
vent the overstrained boat from foundering at her 
anchor. 

We have a very faint idea in our northern lati- 
tudes of what a thunder-storm is in the tropics, 
and the slight affair that Stanley made of it is one 
of those apparantly insignificant, and yet most 
striking illustrations of his character. Storms on 
the water — starvation on land — deadly perils of 
all kinds are spoken of by him as one would 
speak of the ordinary incidents of travel. He has 
no time, and apparently no taste, for sensational 
writing ; or perhaps it would be nearer the truth 
to say — in his cool courage, calm self-reliance and 
apparent contempt of death he does not see the 
dramatic side of the scenes in which he performs 
so important a part. The most tragic events — 
the most perilous crises are treated by him as 
ordinary events. An escape so narrow that one's 
heart stops beating as he contemplates it, he nar- 
rates with as much coolness and apparent indif- 



A WELCOME SIGHT. 



263 



ferance as he would his deliverance from a dis- 
agreeable companion. 

In the morning, Stanley, as he looked around 
him and saw the surf breaking on every side, 
ordered the anchor up and the sail hoisted, for this 
was too dangerous a place for the Lady Alice. The 
thunder-storm had passed, and a stiff northeast 
breeze had sprung up, before which he bowled 
swiftly along, and in three hours reached the mouth 
of a quiet cove near the village of Kajuri, at the 
southeastern extremity of Bumbirch Island. After 
the storm and peril of the last forty-eight hours, 
it was a welcome sight that greeted them. The 
green slopes of this gem set in the sparkling 
waters were laden t with fruits and covered with 
cattle. Groves of bananas, herds of cattle lazily 
feeding, and flocks of goats promised an abun- 
dance of food ; and Stanley and his men, as they 
drew near the lovely, inviting shore, reveled in an- 
ticipation of the rest and good cheer awaiting 
them. Filled with the most peaceful intentions 
themselves — their hearts made glad at the sight 
of the bountiful provisions before them — they did 
not dream of any hostility, when suddenly they 
heard a wild, shrill war-cry from the plateau above 
the huts of the village near the shore, on which 
were gathered a crowd of excited men. Stanley 
was surprised at this unexpected hostile demon- 
stration, and halted just as the boat was about to 
ground, to ascertain what it meant. The savages 



264 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



in the meantime were rushing wildly toward the 
shore in front of where the boat lay rocking on 
the water. As they approached, they suddenly 
changed their warlike attitude, and, ceasing their 
loud yells, assumed a friendly manner, and invited 
them to land in tones and gestures so kind and 
affable that Stanley's first suspicions were at once 
disarmed, and he ordered the rowers to send the 
boat ashore. But the moment the keel grated on 
the pebbly beach, all this friendliness of manner 
changed, and the naked savages rushed into the 
water, and, seizing the boat, lifted it up bodily and, 
with all on board, carried it high and dry on the 
bank. 

Stanley was terribly aroused at this sudden 
treachery, and reckless of consequences, deter- 
mined to avenge it, and twice he raised his re- 
volver to shoot down the audacious wretches, but 
his crew begged him to desist, declaring earnestly 
that these people were friends, and that if he 
would wait a few minutes, he would see that all 
was right. He accordingly sat down in the stern 
sheets and waited to see the end. In the mean- 
time, the savages came leaping from the hill-sides, 
tossing their naked limbs in the air, and uttering 
loud yells, till a wild, frantic multitude completely 
surrounded the boat in which Stanley still sat un- 
moved and calm. The wretches seemed crazed 
with passion, and poised their spears as if about 
to strike him, and drew their arrows to the head, 



A TREACHEROUS TRICK 



267 



one discharge of which would have riddled Stan- 
ley, struck the boat by his side with their spear 
handles, gnashed theirteeth, foamed at the mouth, 
and yelled till their eyes seemed bursting from 
their sockets. Stanley, however, never moved 
nor uttered a word. His life did not seem worth 
a thought in that frenzied, demoniacal crowd. But 
resistance and expostulation were alike useless, 
and he could do nothing but wait tbe final assault, 
and then sell his life dearly as possible. 

For some strange, unaccountable reason, their 
chief, Thekha, kept them from the last act of vio- 
lence, and at last so quieted them that Stanley 
calmly asked him how much he demanded to let him 
go. The most curious part of this whole affair is, 
that the chief condescended to enter into negotia- 
tions with Stanley. Everything the latter had was 
in the boat, and he had only to give the word, and 
in five minutes all was his. But instead of doing 
this, he struck up a bargain with Stanley, and 
agreed to let him off for four cloths and ten neck- 
laces of large beads. Stanley at once took them 
from his packages and gave them to him. But 
no sooner had he received them, than he gave a 
quick order to his men to seize the oars of the 
boat. In a twinkling, before Stanley had time to 
think what they were about, the oars were caught 
up and carried away. The natives seeing through 
the treacherous trick, enjoyed it thoroughly, a^nd 
their loud laughing jeers roused all the devil in 



2 68 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

Stanley's nature, but he still said nothing. Hav- 
ing got possession of the oars, they thought he 
was helpless as a tortoise on his back, and became 
quiet, seemingly enjoying the white man's helpless- 
, ness. Having no fear of his escape, they at noon 
leisurely walked to their huts to get their noonday 
meal, and to discuss what the next move should be. 
Stanley says he was not idle, he wished to impose 
on the savages by his indifferent manner, but he 
was all the while planning how to escape and the 
best mode of meeting the attack when it came. 

While the savages were at their dinner, a ne- 
gress came near them and told them to eat honey 
with Thekha, as it was the only way to save their 
lives, for he had determined to kill them and take 
everything they had. Stanley permitted his cox- 
swain to go to Thekha and make the proposition 
to eat honey. The wily chief told him to be at 
ease, no harm was intended them and next day 
he would eat honey with them. The coxswain 
returned delighted, and reported the good news. 
But Stanley checked the confidence of the men, 
and told them that nothing but their own wit and 
courage could save their lives. This, he said, was 
all a trick, the next move would be to seize their 
guns as they had the oars, when they would be 
helpless, and by no means to leave the boat, but 
be prepared to act at any moment when he should 
give the word. The men saw at once the force 
of Stanley's suspicions, and kept close by him. 



A CRITICAL MOMENT. 



269 



Thus nearly three long hours passed away, 
neither he nor his crew doing or attempting to do 
anything. But about three o'clock, the war-drums 
began again their horrid din, and soon the loping, 
naked savages were seen running from every 
quarter, and in half an hour five hundred war- 
riors had gathered around the chief within thirty 
paces of the boat. He was sitting down, and 
when the warriors were all assembled, he made 
them an address. As soon as he had finished, 
about fifty of them dashed up to Stanley's men, 
and seizing his drum, bore it back in triumph. 
From some cause or other, this last and apparently 
most harmless act of all aroused Stanley's sus- 
picions to a point that made him act promptly and 
decisively. 

Perhaps it was their scornful, insulting language 
as they walked off, bidding him get his guns ready, 
as they were coming back soon to cut his throat. 
At all events, the moment he saw them approach 
the chief with the drum, he shouted to his men to 
push the boat into the water. The eleven men 
sprang to its sides, and lifting it as if it had been 
a toy, carried it, with Stanley in it, to the water's 
edge and shot it, with one desperate effort, far 
out into the lake and beyond their depth, and 
where they had to swim for it. Quickly as it was 
done, the savages instantly detected the move- 
ment, and before the boat had lost its headway, 
were crowding the very edge of the water, to 



2 j IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

which they had rushed like a whirlwind, shouting 
and yelling like madmen. Seizing his elephant 
rifle, Stanley sent two large conical balls into the 
dense mass with frightful effect. Then pulling 
one of the men in the boat, and bidding him help 
the others in, he seized his double-barreled gun, 
loaded with buck-shot, and fired right and left into 
the close-packed, naked crowd. It was like firing 
with small shot into a flock of pigeons, and a clean 
swath was cut through the naked mass, which 
was so stunned at the horrible effect, that they ran 
back up the slope without hurling a spear or shoot- 
ing an arrow. 

With the oars gone, the great struggle would 
be to get out into the open lake, where they could 
hoist sail ; for, this once accomplished, they could 
bid defiance to their enemies. Stanley knew the 
first move of the savages would be to man their 
canoes, which lined the shore, and surround his 
helpless vessel and overwhelm him. He therefore 
watched the first movement to launch a canoe, and 
as soon as a desperate-looking savage made 
the attempt, he dropped him with a bullet through 
his body. A second, following his example, fell 
on the beach, when they paused at the certain 
death that seemed to await the man who dared to 
touch a boat. Just then Stanley caught sight of 
the sub-chief, who commanded the party that took 
the drum, and taking a cool, deliberate aim at him 
with his elephant rifle, he sent one of its great 



TERRIBLE RECOMPENSE. 271 

conical balls tearing through his body, killing at 
the same time his wife and infant, behind him. 
This terrified them, for there seemed something 
supernatural about this deadly work, and they 
ceased their efforts to launch the boats, and 
hastened to get out of the reach of such fatal 
firing. In the meantime, the men were slowly 
working the boat toward the mouth of the cove. 
But, just as they were feeling safe, Stanley saw 
two canoes, loaded heavily with warriors, push out 
of a little bay and pull toward him. Putting two 
explosive shells into his elephant rifle, he waited 
till they came within the distance where they would 
be most destructive, and then commenced firinp". 
He fired rapidly, but being a dead-shot, with great 
accuracy, and the shells, as they struck inside the 
canoes, burst with, terrible effect. Four, shots 
killed five men and sunk both the canoes, leaving 
the warriors to swim ashore. This ended the 
fight, and the enraged and baffled crowd vented 
their fury by shouting out, "Go and die in the 
Nyanza. " 

Stanley's rapid deadly firing killed fourteen, and 
wounded with buck-shot eight, which, he coolly re- 
marks, "I consider to be very dear payment for 
the robbery of eight ash oars and a drum, though 
barely equivalent, in our estimation, to the intended 
massacre of ourselves." This cool-blooded treach- 
ery and narrow escape roused Stanley's whole 
nature, and terrible as had been the punishment 



272 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



he had inflicted, he resolved that he would make 
it more terrible still before he had done with them. 

During the perils of the next night that fol- 
lowed, he had plenty of time to nurse his wrath. 
Having got clear of the land, he hoisted sail, and 
favored by a light breeze, by night was eight miles 
from the treacherous Bumbireh. A little after 
dark the breeze died away, and he set the men to 
paddling. But, their oars being gone, they made 
slow headway. At sunrise they were only twenty 
miles from the island, but near noon, a strong 
breeze springing up from the northwest, they 
bowled along at the rate of five miles an hour, and 
soon saw it sink in the distant horizon. At sun- 
set they saw an island named Sousa, toward which 
they steered, hoping to reach it by midnight and 
find a safe haven. But about eight o'clock the 
breeze began to increase till it rose to a fierce 
gale, and the sail had to be taken in. fc 

Being without oars, they could not keep the 
light boat before the wind, and she was whirled 
away by it like a feather, and wallowed amid the 
waves that kept increasing, till it seemed impossi- 
ble to keep much longer afloat. The men strove 
desperately with their boards for paddles to reach 
the island, and get to the leeward of it, till the 
storm should break, but it was of no avail. They 
were swept by it like a piece of drift-wood, and 
the lightning, as it lit up its green sides, seemed 
to mock their despair. The terrific crash of the 



A NIGHT TEMPEST. 2 j~ 

thunder, the roar of the tempest, and the wild 
waste of the wrathful water as it was incessantly 
lit up by the blinding flashes, made it the most 
terrific night Stanley had ever passed in all his 
wide wanderings. Between the dashing of the 
waves over the gunwale and the downfalling del- 
uge of rain, the helpless boat rapidly filled, and it 
required constant and rapid bailing to keep it from 
going to the bottom. 

The imagination cannot conceive the terrors 
that surrounded that little boat with its helpless 
crew on that storm-swept lake during that long, 
wild night. Above them, rushed the angry clouds, 
pierced incessantly by the lightning; the heavy 
thunder shook the very heavens, while all around 
them were islands and rocks, and a few miles 
ahead, the main-land peopled by hostile savages. 
Yet, amid all their terror, the men worn out with 
their long fasting and exhausting labors, would 
drop asleep, till awakened by the stern order to 
bail. The men of Bumbireh had shouted after 
them, "go and die in the Nyanza, " and they now 
seemed to be prophetic words. Stanley remem- 
bered them, and he lived to make the murderous 
savages remember them, too. At daybreak the 
tempest broke, and the waves not having the heavy 
roll of the ocean, quickly subsided, and they saw 
they had drifted eight miles off the isle of Susa, 
which they had made such desperate efforts to reach 
the night before, while other islands rose in the dis- 



2>7 4 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

tance. There was not a morsel of food in the 
boat, and it was now forty-eight hours since they 
had tasted any, yet the men took to their paddles 
cheerfully. Soon a gentle breeze set in from the 
westward, and hoisting sail, they steered for an 
unknown island, which Stanley named Refuge 
Island. It was small and uninhabited, but on ex- 
ploring it, they discovered that the natives had 
once occupied and cultivated it. To their great 
joy, they found green bananas, and a small fruit 
resembling cherries, but tasting like dates. Stan- 
ley succeeded, also, in shooting two fat ducks. 
The men soon stripped these of their feathers and 
had them in the pot* with which, and the fruit, they 
made what seemed to them in their famished con- 
dition, a right royal repast. The camp was pitched 
close by the sandy beach, and when night closed 
sweetly in on the wanderers, "there were few 
people in the world," says Stanley, "blessed God 
more devoutly than we did." And well they 
might, for their double deliverance from the sav- 
ages on shore and the tempest on the water, was 
almost miraculous. 

They rested here all the next day recruiting, 
and then set sail, and coming to friendly natives, 
laid in a supply of provisions. While at anchor, 
some of the men plucked the poultry they had 
bought, and they feasted till they were thoroughly 
satisfied. 

At midnight, a favorable wind rising, they set 



AGAIN IN THE STORM. 2 y^ 

sail for Usukuma. About three in the morning 
they were in the middle of the Speke Gulf, from 
which they had started nearly two months before, 
and bound for their camp. The wind had died 
away, and the water lay calm and unruffled be- 
neath the tropical sky. : But this calm was only 
the prelude to a fearful storm. Clouds, black as 
ink, began to roll up the heavens, their edges cor- 
rugated and torn by the contending forces that 
urged them on, while out from their foldings the 
lightning leaped in blinding flashes, and the 
thunder, instead of rolling in angry peals, came 
down in great crashes as if the very frame-work 
of nature was rending, and then the hail, in stones 
big as filberts, beat down on their uncovered heads. 
The waves rose to an astonishing height, and tore 
like wild horses over the lake. The boat became 
unmanageable, and was whirled along at the 
mercy of the wind and waves. But the staunch 
little craft outrode the fury of the gale, with a 
buoyancy that surprised Stanley. 

Next morning, although almost under the 
equator, they saw the day dawn gray, and cheer- 
less, and raw. On taken his observations, Stanley 
found that he was only about twenty miles north- 
west of his camp. The news sent new life into 
the crew. They hoisted sail, and, though at first 
the wind was unfavorable, yet, as if good luck had 
come at last, it shifted astern, and, with a full sail, 



j6 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



they steered straight for camp — every heart bound- 
ing with joy. 

• The men in camp discovered the boat when 
miles away, and hurrying to the shore sent up 
shout after shout, and tossed their arms joyfully 
in the air. As the boat drove swiftly on, the shouts 
were changed to volleys of musketry and waving 
of flags, while "the land seemed alive with leap- 
ing forms of glad-hearted men." Rumors of their 
destruction had reached camp, and his long ab- 
sence seemed to confirm them, and they had made 
up their minds, that, with their leader lost, they 
must turn back. As the boat grated on the 
pebbly shore, fifty men leaped into the water and 
seizing Stanley lifted him bodily out, and, running 
up the bank, placed him on their shoulders, and 
danced around the camp like madmen. They 
seemed unable to contain their joy. It showed 
how strong was the hold Stanley had on their 
affections. Stern in enforcing discipline and re- 
lentless in punishing crime, he was always careful 
of their welfare, attentive to their wants, just in all 
his dealings, and generous in his reward for good 
behavior and faithful service, and by this course he 
had bound these simple children of nature to him 
with cords of iron. 



1 



CHAPTER XV. 

AN INTERVAL OF REST, 

^HE next morning, as Stanley looked out 
of his tent-door upon the broad and beau- 
tiful lake, it was with that intense feeling 
of satisfaction wfth which one contemplates a great 
and perilous undertaking, which, after being well- 
nigh abandoned, is at last successfully accom- 
plished. The waters, glittering in the morning 
sun, had but a short time before seemed to him 
an angry foe, but now they wore a friendly aspect. 
They seemed to belong to him. Livingstone, and 
Speke, and Burton, and others had looked on that 
lake, and sighed in vain to solve the mystery that 
enveloped it, while he had not only followed its 
winding shores their entire length, but had sounded 
its depths and fixed its geographical position for- 
ever. His toils were over, and the victory won in 
this his first great enterprise, and he could well 
look forward with hope to the great work still 
before him. His escapes had been wonderful^ 
and he might take them as good omens for the 
future. 

It seemed as if fate delighted to place him in 
positions of danger, from which there appeared 
to be no escape, in order to show her power to 

(277) 



2^8 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

save him under any and all circumstances. Even 
now, when contemplating so satisfactorily his suc- 
cess, he was startled by the narrowness of his 
escape from a danger of which he had never 
before dreamed. That trouble, disorder and de- 
sertion might befall his camp during his absence 
he had often feared, but now he was told by the 
men he had left in charo-e of it, that in a few hours 
more the expedition would have broken up and 
disappeared forever. 

This was Frank Pocoke's report. He said that 
a rumor had reached camp that Stanley and his 
crew had been taken prisoners soon after leaving, 
and he at once sent off fifty soldiers to effect his 
release, who found the report false. They had 
also heard of his fight with the Wamma, and that 
he was killed. In the meantime a conspiracy had 
been formed by three neighboring tribes to cap- 
ture the camp and seize all the goods. It was 
discovered, and everything put in the best state 
possible to defeat it, when the whole fell through 
on account of the sudden death of one of the con- 
spirators and the disaffection of another. 

With the report of Stanley's death uncontra- 
dicted — nay, corroborated by his long absence — 
and in view of the dangers surrounding them, the 
soldiers and men held a meeting to determine 
what course they should take. He had then been 
gone nearly a month and a half, and it should not 
have taken more than half that time to have cir- 



PROPOSALS TO ABANDON CAMP. 



279 



cumnavigated the lake with a boat that, in a fair 
breeze, could go five or six miles an hour. 

Something must have happened to him ; that 
was certain ; and it mattered little whether it was 
death or captivity. It was finally decided to wait 
fifteen days longer, or till the new moon, when, if 
he did not appear, they would strike camp and 
march back to Unyanyembe. The fifteen days 
would have expired the next day after Stanley's 
arrival. If, therefore, he had been delayed forty- 
eight hours longer, instead of being received with 
the waving of flags, shouts and volleys of mus- 
ketry, and wild demonstrations of delight, there 
would have been no welcome, but a silent, de- 
serted camp. This would have been a terrible 
blow, and would have dashed with the bitterest dis- 
appointment all the joy at his task successfully 
accomplished. But he had been saved all this; 
still one calamity had befallen him for which there 
was no remedy; young Barker had died only a 
few days before his arrival, and six of his strong 
men had fallen victims to dysentery and fever. 
Thus while in all the danger through which he 
had passed on the lake he had not lost a man, 
seven had died while lying idly in a healthy camp. 
The death of Barker he felt keenly, for of the three 
white men who had started with him, two had 
already fallen, and now only one was left. 

In writing to his mother, announcing his death, 
and expressing his sympathy with her in her afflic- 



2 8o IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

tion, he thus speaks of the manner in which it oc- 
curred: "I was absent on an exploring expe- 
dition on Lake Victoria, having- left Francis Pocoke 
and Frederick Barker in charge of my camp. Al- 
together I was absent fifty-eight days. When I 
returned, hoping that I would find that all had 
gone well, I was struck with the grievous news 
that your son had died twelve days before, of an 
intermittent fever. What little I have been able 
to learn of your son's death, amounts to this : On 
April 2 2d, he went out on the lake with Pocoke to 
shoot hippopotami, and all day enjoyed himself. 
On the morning of the 23d he went out for a little 
walk, had his tea and some pancakes, washed him- 
self, and then suddenly said he felt ill, and lay 
down in bed. He called for a hot stone to be put 
to his feet; brandy was given him, blankets were 
heaped on him, but he felt such cold in his ex- 
tremities that nothing availed to restore heat in his 
body. His blood seems to have become con- 
gealed. At eight o' clock, an hour after he lay 
down, he was dead. Such is what I have been 
able to glean from Pocoke of the manner of his 
death. But by our next letter-carrier, Pocoke 
shall send you a complete account." He then 
goes on to speak of his excellent qualities and 
promising future, and his own great loss. 

One of the curious things that struck Stanley 
as he looked on his party, was the strange con- 
trast between Pocoke's face and his own. The 



REST AFTER TOIL. 2 gj 

former being most of the time in camp, had 
bleached to his old English whiteness, while, un- 
der the reflection of the fierce rays of an equato- 
rial sun, he had been burned till his face was the 
color of a lobster — in fact, the natives had come 
to call him, not the pale, but the red- faced man, to 
which his blood-shot eyes gave a still more san- 
guinary appearance. 

Now followed a season of rest and of sweet 
repose; and how deep and sweet it was, may be 
gathered from his own language. He says: 
"Sweet is the Sabbath day to the toil-worn laborer, 
happy is the long sea-tossed mariner on his ar- 
rival in port, and sweet were the days of calm 
rest we enjoyed after our troublous exploration 
of the Nyanza. The brusque storms, the con- 
tinued rains, the cheerless gray clouds, the wild 
waves, the loneliness of the islands, the inhospi- 
tality of the natives that were like mere phases of 
a dream, were now but the reminiscenes of the 
memory, so little did we heed what was past while 
enjoying the luxury of a rest from our toils. Still 
it added to our pleasure to be able to conjure up 
in the mind the varied incidents of the long lake 
journey; they served to enliven and employ the 
mind while the body enjoyed repose, like condi- 
ments quickening digestion. It was a pleasure 
to be able to map at will, in the mind, so many 
countries newly discovered, such a noble extent of 
fresh water explored for the first time. As the 



2 g 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

memory flew over the lengthy track of explora- 
tion, how fondly it dwelt on the many picturesque 
bays, margined by water-lilies and lotus plants, 
or by the green walls of the slender reed-like 
papyrus, inclosing an area of water, whose face 
was as calm as a mirror, because lofty mountain 
ridges almost surround it. With what kindly re- 
cognition it roved over the little green island in 
whose snug haven our boat had lain securely- at 
anchor, when the rude tempest without churned 
the face of the Nyanza into a foaming sheet." 
The lofty rocks once more rose before him in imagi- 
nation, while the distant hills were outlined against 
the fervid horizon, and the rich grain fields of some 
of the districts smiled in the sun. But his memory 
dwelt with fondest recollection on Uganda and its 
hospitable King Mtesa, for there, it not only re- 
called the present, but pictured a glorious future, 
in which smiling villages took the places of rude 
huts, from the midst of which church spires rose, 
and the clear tones of the bell called the dusky 
inhabitants to the place of worship. As he thus 
lay dreaming, close by the equatorial circle, he 
saw the land smiling in affluence and plenty; its 
bays crowded with the dark hulls of trading ves- 
sels, heard the sound of craftsmen at their work, 
the roar of manufactories and foundries, and the 
ever-buzzing noise of industry. 

With these bright anticipations of the future, the 
happy result of his endeavors, would mingle his 



STANLE Y> S DA Y-D REAMS. 283 

desperate encounters with the savages, his 
narrow escapes, his nights of danger on the tem- 
pestuous lake, his wonderful success so near a 
failure at last — of all these marvelous experiences 
and events crowded on him as he lay and rested, 
and dreamed on the shores of the lake that he felt 
to be his own. If half that he anticipated, as he 
lay and rested and dreamed, turns out true, his 
name will be linked with changes that will sink all 
his great discoveries into nothingness — moral 
changes and achievements as much above mere 
material success as mind is above matter — civiliza- 
tion above barbarism — Christianity above Pagan- 
ism. 

This successful voyage and safe return inspired 
the members of the expedition with renewed con- 
fidence in their leader, and Stanley soon set about 
prosecuting the great work to which he had devoted 
himself, and which, with all its toils and dangers 
and great sacrifice of life, had only just begun. 

The Grand Admiral Magassa had not yet joined 
him. There was no reason he had not done so, 
except that the fight at Bumbireh and subsequent 
storm on the lake had sent them wide apart. But 
he had two of Stanley's best men with him, who 
would direct him to the camp in Speke Bay, toward 
which he knew Stanley was working, and where 
he should have been before this time. The latter 
waited nine days in camp for him, and then con- 
cluding that he did not intend to come at all, 



284 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



resolved to march back overland with his party 
(as he had no canoes to carry them by water) to 
Uganda. Just as they were ready to start, there 
came into camp a negro embassy from Ruoma, 
which lay between him and Ugondo on the land 
route, with the following message : "Ruoma sends 
salaams to the white man. He does not want the 
white man's cloth, beads or wire, but the white 
man must not pass through his country. Ruoma 
does not want to see him or any other man with 
long red hair down to his shoulders, white face 
and big red eyes. Ruoma is not afraid of him, 
but if the white man will come near his country, 
Ruoma and Mirambo will fight him. " 

"Here, indeed," as Stanley says, "was a di- 
lemma. " Mtesa's admiral had proved false to the 
instructions given him by the king, and no boats 
had arrived to convey his party to Uganda by 
water, and now the ruler of the district through 
which he must pass to reach it by land forbade 
him to cross it. To force a passage was impossi- 
ble ; for Ruoma, besides having a hundred and 
fifty muskets and several thousand spearmen and 
bowmen, had the dreaded Mirambo, with his fierce 
warriors, within a day's march of him and ready 
to aid him. Even if he could fight his way across 
the country, it would be at a sacrifice of life that 
he could not afford, and which the results he hoped 
to secure would not justify. Still, he could not 
give up Uganda, with its half-civilized king, for it 



SEEKING CANOES. 



285 



was not only the most interesting country that 
bordered on the lake, but it comprised the unknown 
region lying between it and Tanganika. If he 
could only get canoes from some other quarter, 
he could take his party to Uganda by water ; and 
once there, his friend Mtesa would give him all 
the aid he wanted. He therefore set on foot in- 
quiries respecting the various tribes bordering on 
the gulf on which he was encamped, to ascertain 
the number of canoes each possessed. He found 
that the king of Ukerewe, the large island lying 
at the mouth of the gulf, was the most likely per- 
son to have the canoes he wanted, and he applied 
to him. But he was unable to negotiate for them 
in person, as he was taken suddenly and seriously 
ill — the result of his long exposure on the lake 
under an equatorial sun — so he sent Pocoke, with 
Prince Kaduma, to make proposals for them. 
These, taking a handsome present for the king, 
departed. In twelve days they returned with fifty 
canoes and some three hundred natives under the 
command of the king's brother ; but to convey him 
and his party to the king, not to Uganda. 

Stanley's joy at the sight of the canoes was 
dampened by this request, and he told the king's 
brother that even if the king would give all his 
land and cattle, he would not let the expedition go 
to Ukerewe, but that he himself would go, and the 
messenger himself might return as soon as he 
pleased. As soon as he was well enough he set 



2 g5 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

out, and on the second day he reached the island. 
Knowing how much was at stake, he put on his 
court costume, which meant the best clothes in his 
wardrobe, and equipped himself with his best 
arms, while his attendants bore valuable presents. 
The next day after his arrival was fixed for the 
great audience. When the hour arrived Stanley 
mustered the crew of the Lady Alice, who had 
been dressed for the occasion, and the bugle 
sounded the order to march. In ten minutes they 
came to a level stretch of ground, in the centre 
of which was a knoll, where the king was seated 
in state, surrounded by hundreds of bowmen and 
spearmen. He was a young man, with a color 
tending more to the mulatto than the negro — pos- 
sessing an amiable countenance, and altogether 
he made a favorable impression on Stanley. He 
was quite a conspicuous object sitting on that 
knoll in the midst of warriors, for he was wrapped 
in a robe of red and yellow silk damask cloth. 
His reception of Stanley consisted in a long, 
steady stare, but being informed that the latter 
wished to state the object of his visit to him and 
a few of his chiefs alone, he stepped aside a short 
distance to a pile of stones, and invited them to 
join him. Stanley then stated what he wanted, 
how far he wished the canoes to go, what he would 
pay for them, etc., etc. The king listened atten- 
tively, and replied in a kind and affable manner ; 
but he said his canoes were many of them rotten 



THE KINGS STRATEGY. 



287 



and unfit for a long voyage, and he was afraid 
they would give out, and then he would be blamed 
and accused of being- the cause of the loss of his 
property. Stanley replied that he might blame 
the canoes, but not him. At the close of the con- 
ference, the king said he should have as many 
canoes as he wanted, but he must remain a few 
days and partake of his hospitality. This was 
given in no stinted measure, for beeves, and goats* 
and chickens, and milk, and eggs, and bananas, 
and plantains were furnished in prodigal quanti- 
ties, together with native beer for the crew. They 
luxuriated in abundance, and. on the fifteenth day 
the king came to Stanley's tent with his chief 
counselor, and gave him his secret instructions and 
advice. He said he had ordered fifty canoes to 
carry him as far as Usukuma, Stanley's camp, but 
his people would not be willing to go to Uganda. 
He, therefore, had resorted to stratagem, and 
caused it to be reported that Stanley was going 
to come and live among them. He said that the lat- 
ter must encourage this report, and when he got to 
Usukuma, and the canoes were drawn up on shore 
he must seize them and secure the paddles. Hav- 
ing thus rendered it impossible for them to return, 
he was to inform them what he intended to do. 

Stanley having promised to obey his instructions 
implicitly, the king sent with him his prime minis- 
ter and two favorites, and he departed, after leav- 
ing behind him a handsome present as an earnest 



2 38 JN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

of what he would do in the future. The natives 
bent to their paddles cheerfully, and at length 
reached Stanley's camp ; but instead of fifty, he 
found there but twenty-three canoes. Though 
disappointed, he was compelled to be content with 
these. 

He accordingly whispered his orders to the cap- 
tains of his expedition to muster their men and 
seize the canoes and paddles. This was done, and 
the canoes were drawn up far on land. The as- 
tonished natives inquired the meaning of this, and 
when told, flew into a furious passion, and being 
about equal in number to Stanley's party, showed 
fight. The latter saw at a glance that any attempt 
to mollify them by talk would be fruitless, and that 
energetic, prompt measures alone would answer, 
and he immediately ordered the bugle to sound 
the rally. The soldiers stepped quickly into line, 
when he ordered a charge with the muzzles of 
their guns, and the astonished, duped creatures 
were driven out of camp and away from the shore. 
Stanley then held a parley with them and proposed 
to send them back, and did, or at least a portion 
of them, in four canoes, which could return and take 
off the rest. The other canoes he kept, and on the 
third day started for Uganda with a portion of the 
expedition, and at the end of five days arrived at 
Refuge Island. Remembering when he was there 
before, that the inhabitants of the mainland, which 
was not more than six miles off, were not kindly 



TREACHERY THWARTED. 289 

disposed toward him, he built a strong camp among 
the rocks, locating it so that each high rock could 
furnish a position for sharp-shooters, and in every 
way he could, rendered it impregnable, in case it 
should be attacked during his absence. 

As he had not been able to embark all his ex- 
pedition and baggage, he now returned for them, 
reaching his old camp again after an absence of 
fifteen days. He learned on his arrival that two 
neighboring chiefs were planning to seize him and 
make him pay a heavy ransom. He, however, 
said nothing; spoke pleasantly every day to one 
of them — Prince Kaduma, and made presents to 
his pretty wife, and went on loading his canoes. 
When the day of embarkation arrived, the two 
chiefs, with a strong force came to the water's 
edge and looked on moodily. Stanley appeared 
not to notice it, but laughed and talked pleasantly, 
and proceeding leisurely to the Lady Alice, ordered 
the boats crew to shove her off. When a short 
distance was reached, he • halted, and swinging 
broadside on shore, showed a row of deadly guns 
in point-blank range of the shore. Taken com- 
pletely aback by this sudden movement, and not 
daring to make a hostile demonstration with those 
guns covering them, the treacherous chiefs let the 
process of embarkation go on without moles- 
tation, and soon the last canoe was afloat and a 
final good-bye given to the camp, a scornful fare- 
well waved to the disappointed natives on shore, 
19 



2 go IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

and the little fleet steered for Refuge Island. 
Rough weather followed, and the rotten canoes 
gave out one after another, so that he had only 
fifteen when he reached the island. He found 
the camp had not been disturbed in his absence, 
On the contrary, the neighboring kings and chiefs, 
seeing that his camp was impregnable, had prof- 
fered their friendship and supplied the soldiers 
with provisions. They also provided him with a 
guide and sold him three canoes. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PREPARATIONS FOR FURTHER EXPLORATIONS. 

STANLEY now rested a few days on this 
island before beginning his explorations. 
It was associated in his mind with bitter 
memories, and, as he wandered over it, he remem- 
bered the insults he had received, and his almost 
miraculous escape from death near it. The treach- 
erous Bumbireh was almost in sight, and it 
awakened in him a strong desire for revenge, and 
he determined to visit the island again, and demand 
reparation for the wrongs he had received, and if 
it was not given, to make war on them and teach 
them a lesson on good behavior. So at the end 
of three days he set sail and camped on Mahyiga 
Island, five miles distant, and sent a message to 
the natives saying, that if they would deliver their 
king and two principal chiefs into his hands, he 
would make peace with them, otherwise he would 
make war. This was a cool request, and Stanley 
himself, suspecting it would be refused, sent a 
party to invite the king of Iroba, an island only a 
mile from Bumbireh, to visit him, who, dreading 
the vengeance of the white man, came, bringing 
with him three chiefs. On what principle of morals 
Stanley will justify his course we cannot say, but 

(291) 



292 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



the moment the king arrived, he had him and his 
chiefs put in chains ; the conditions of their release 
being that his people should deliver the king of 
Bumbireh, and two of his principal chiefs into his 
hands. 

Although the people of Bumbireh had treated 
his message with contempt, the subjects of Iroba 
seized their king and delivered him into the hands 
of Stanley. The peril of their own king had stimu- 
lated them to effort, and Stanley at once released 
him, while he loaded his new royal captive heavily 
with chains. He also sent a message to king 
Antari, on the mainland, to whom Bumbireh was 
tributary, requesting him to redeem his land from 
war. In reply, the latter sent his son and two 
chiefs to him to make peace, who brought a quan- 
tity of bananas as a promise of what the king 
would do in the future. Stanley, in conversing 
with them, detected them in so many falsehoods, 
and thinking he saw treachery in their faces, or 
perhaps it would be more in accordance with truth 
to say, that having got them in his power, he 
thought it better to keep them as hostages for the 
appearance of the two chiefs of Bumbireh, who had 
not been brought with the king, and he, therefore, 
did so. In the meantime, seven large canoes of 
Mtesa came up, which were out on an expedition 
of the king's. The chief commanding them told 
Stanley that Magassa had recovered the oars cap- 
tured at Bumbireh, and that on his returning and 



ORGANIZING AN ATTACK. 



293 



reporting Stanley dead, he had been put in chains 
by Mtesa, but subsequently he had been released 
and dispatched in search of him. Stanley per- 
suaded this chief, with his canoes, to remain and 
assist in the attack on Bumbireh, if his followers 
refused the terms of peace. 

Two days after, this chief sent some of his men 
to Bumbireh for food, but they were not allowed 
to land. On the contrary, they were attacked, and 
one man was killed and eight were wounded. This 
gave Stanley another strong reason for making 
war at once without further negotiations, to which 
Mtesa's chief gladly consented. Accordingly, 
next morning, he mustered two hundred and eighty 
men with fifty muskets, and two hundred spear- 
men, and placed them in eighteen canoes and set 
out for Bumbireh, eight miles distant, and reached 
the island at two o'clock in the afternoon. 

The natives of Bumbireh were evidently ex- 
pecting trouble, for they felt sure the attack on 
the friends of Stanley the day before would be 
quickly avenged. As the latter, therefore, drew 
near the shore, he saw lookouts on every emi- 
nence. Looking through his field-glass, he soon 
discovered messengers running to a plantain grove 
which stood on a low hill that commanded a clear, 
open view of a little port on the southern point of 
the island, from which he concluded that the main 
force of the enemy was assembled there. He then 
called the canoes together, and told them to follow 



294 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



him and steer just as he steered, and by no means 
to attempt to land, as he did not mean that one of 
Mtesa's men should be killed, or, indeed, any of 
his own soldiers — he intended to punish Bumbireh 
without any damage to himself. He then ordered 
his crew to row straight for the port — the other 
canoes following in close order behind. He man- 
aged to keep out of sight of the lookouts; and 
skirting close to the land, at the end of a little 
more than a mile, rounded a cape and shot into a 
fine bay, right in the rear and in full view of the 
enemy. They were gathered in such large num- 
bers that Stanley saw it would not do to attack 
them in such a cover, and so steered for the op- 
posite side of the bay, as though he intended to 
land there, where the sloping hill-sides were bare 
of everything but low grass. The savages, per- 
ceiving this, broke cover and ran yelling toward 
the threatened point. This was exactly what 
Stanley wanted, and he ordered the rowers to 
pull slowly, so as to give them time to reach the 
spot toward which he was moving. Very soon 
they were all assembled on the naked hill-side, 
brandishing their weapons fiercely in the air. 
Stanley kept slowly on till within a hundred 
yards of the beach, when he anchored broadside 
on the shore — the English and American flags 
waving above him. The other seventeen canoes 
followed his example. Seeing a group of about 
fifty standing close together, he ordered a volley 



TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT. 



295 



to be fired into it. Fifty muskets and his own 
trusty rifle spoke at once, and with such terrible 
effect that nearly the whole number was killed or 
wounded. The natives, astounded at this mur- 
derous work, now separated and came down to 
the water's edge singly, and began to yell and 
sling stones and shoot arrows. Stanley then 
ordered the anchors up, and gave directions to 
move the canoes to within fifty yards of the shore, 
and each soldier to select his man and fire as 
though he was shooting birds. The savages 

t> o o 

dropped right and left before this target practice, 
but the survivors stood their ground firmly, for 
they knew if Stanley effected a landing he would 
burn everything on the island. 

For an hour they endured the deadly fire, and 
then, unable longer to stand it, moved up the hill, 
but still not out of range, especially of Stanley's 
unerring rifle. Though every now and then a 
man would drop, they refused to move farther 
away, for they knew that if they were not near 
enough to make a dash the moment the boats 
touched the shore, all would be lost. Another 
hour was therefore passed in this long-range firing, 
when Stanley ordered the canoes to advance all 
together, as if about to make a sudden landing. 
The savages, seeing this, rushed down the hill- 
side like a torrent, and massed themselves by the 
hundreds at the point toward which the canoes 
were moving, some even entering the water with 



296 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



their spears poised ready to strike. When they 
were packed densely together, Stanley ordered 
the bugle to sound a halt, and, as the crews rested 
on their oars, directed a volley to be fired into 
them, which mowed them down so terribly that 
they turned and fled like deer over the hill. 
Stanley's men had now got their blood up and 
urged him to let them land and make a complete 
end of this treacherous people, but he refused, 
saying that he came to punish, not destroy. 

They had fired in all about seven hundred cart- 
ridges, and as the savages were completely ex- 
posed, and in the afternoon, with the sun directly 
behind the boats, and shining full in their faces, 
the mortality was great. Over forty were left 
dead on the field, while the number of the wounded 
could not be counted, though more than a hun- 
dred were seen to limp or to be led away. It was 
a great victory, and Stanley's dusky allies were in 
a state of high excitement, and made the air ring 
with their shouts and laughter, as they bent to 
their paddles. It was dark when they got back 
to the island, where they were received with wild 
songs of triumph. Stanley was a great hero to 
these untutored children of nature. 

The next morning more canoes arrived from 
Uganda, and Stanley prepared to depart. He 
had now thirty-two canoes, all well loaded with 
men, which made quite an imposing little fleet as 
they moved into order on the lake, and constituted 



COMPLE TEL Y SUBD UED, 2 gj 

a strong force. They sailed close to Bumbireh, 
and Stanley looked to see what had been the effect 
of the severe thrashing he had given them the day 
before. He found their audacity gone, and their 
proud, insulting spirit completely quelled. There 
were no shouts of defiance, no hostile demonstra- 
tions. Seeing a hundred or more gathered in a 
group, he fired a bullet over their heads, which 
scattered them in every direction. The day be- 
fore they had breasted bravely volley after volley, 
but now the war spirit was thoroughly cowed. In 
another place some natives came down to the 
shore and begged them to go away and not hurt 
them any more. This gave Stanley an opportu- 
nity to preach them a sermon on treachery, and 
exhort them hereafter to treat strangers who came 
to them peaceably with kindness. The dead in 
almost every hut was, however, the most effectual 
sermon of the two. 

They camped that evening on the mainland, in 
the territory of King Kattawa, who treated them 
in a magnificent style for a savage, to show his 
gratitude for the punishment they had inflicted on 
Bumbireh, who had a short time before killed one 
of his chiefs. They stayed here a day, and then 
steered for the island of Muzina, where he had 
last seen Magassa and his fleet. The people were 
not friendly to him, but they had heard of the ter- 
rible punishment he had inflicted on the Bumbireh, 
and hastened to supply him with provisions. 



298 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



They brought him five cattle, four goats, and a 
hundred bunches of bananas, besides honey, milk 
and eggs. 

The king of Ugoro, near by, also sent him word 
that he had given his people orders to supply him 
with whatever food he wanted. Stanley replied 
that he wanted no food, but if he would lend him* 
ten canoes to carry his people to Uganda, he 
would consider him as his friend. They were 
promptly furnished. Mtesa's chief urged him to at- 
tack the king, as he had murdered many of Mtesa's 
people, but Stanley refused, saying he did not 
come to make war on black people, he only wished 
to defend his rights and avenge acts of treach- 
ery. Five days after he landed at Duomo Uganda, 
half-way betweet the Kagera and Katonga rivers, 
and pitched his camp. He selected this spot as 
the best place from which to start for the Albert 
Nyanza, which he designed next to explore. He 
wanted to see Mtesa, and get his advice' as to 
which was* the best route to take, because between 
these two lakes were several powerful tribes, who 
were continually at war with the king of Uganda. 

In summing up his losses during this journey 
of two hundred and twenty miles by water, he 
found he had lost six men drowned, five guns and 
one case of ammunition, besides ten canoes wrecked 
and three riding asses dead, leaving him but one. 
He had been gone fifty-six days, and though the 
distance was but two hundred and twenty miles, a 



NE W SCHEMES. 2 qa 

large portion of it had been traversed three times, 
so that he had really travelled by water over seven 
hundred and twenty miles. He had bought 
scarcely any provisions, the expedition subsisting 
on the corn he bought at the start with one bale 
of cloth, but considerable quantities of food had 
been given them. 

He now resolved, after he had settled his camp, 
to visit Mtesa again, and consult with him about 
the aid he could give him to reach Albert Nyanza. 
This lake was the source of the White Nile, up 
which Baker was forcing his way, the very year 
Stanley started on his expedition. Baker hoped 
to launch steamers upon it, but he failed even to 
reach it, though he saw its waters, twenty miles 
distant. Between it and the Victoria Nyanza is an 
unknown region. The distance from one to the 
other in a straight line is probably not two hundred 
miles, though by any travelled route it is, of course 
much farther. Nothing is definitely known of its size 
or shape. Colonel Mason made a partial explora- 
tion of it last year, but it still remains a new field 
for some future explorer, for Stanley failed to reach 
it if Mason's map is correct. The Victoria Nyanza 
he computed to contain twenty-one thousand five 
hundred square miles, and to be nine thousand 
one hundred and sixty-eight feet above the sea 
level. 

There is a large lake almost directly west of the 
Nyanza called Muta Nzienge, which Stanley con- 



'ZOO JN THE WIL £> S 0F AFRICA. 

jectures may be connected with the Albert Nyanza. 
The region around the latter is wholly unknown, 
except that fierce cannibals occupy its western 
shore. We say that Stanley did not reach the 
Albert Nyanza at all, though if it and the Muta 
Nzienge are one, he did. He inserts in his 
journal that he reached the shore of the lake, 
yet by his map he did not. This discrepancy 
is owing probably to the fact that he thought, 
when he wrote, that the lake he saw was the Albert 
Nyanza, and though Colonel Mason explored 
it partially last year, and makes .it an entirely 
distinct lake, yet Stanley's opinion may still be 
unchanged. At all events, his map and journal 
should agree, but they do not, which confuses 
things badly. His route, as he has marked it 
down, does not go near this lake. On the other 
hand, if the Albert and the Muta Nzienge are one, 
it rivals in length the great Tanganika, which no 
one, however, thinks it to do. 

Stanley found Mtesa at war with the Wavuma, 
who refused to pay their annual tribute. Accord- 
ing to his account this monarch had an army with 
him which, with its camp followers, amounted to 
a quarter of a million of souls. He remained with 
Mtesa several weeks, as the war dragged slowly 
along, and, in the meantime, translated, with the 
help of a young, educated Arab, a part of the Bible 
for him, and apparently sent him forward a great 
way toward Christianity. He at length, after he 



THE ALBERT NYANZA. i OI 

had witnessed various naval battles that did not 
seem to bring the war any nearer to a termination, 
built for the king a huge naval structure, wholly 
inclosed, which, when it moved against the brave 
islanders, filled them with consternation, and they 
made peace. 

At this point, Stanley makes a break in his 
journal and devotes nearly a hundred pages to a 
narrative of Uganda and its king, Mtesa. He 
gives its traditions, mingled with much fable ; a 
description of its land, fruits, customs of the people 
— in short, a thorough history, as far as the natives 
know anything about it. This possesses more or 
less interest, though the information it conveys is 
of very little consequence, while it is destitute of 
any incident connected with his journey. 

It was now October, and he turned his atten- 
tion directly to the next scene of his labors — the 
exploration of the Albert Nyanza. The great 
difficulty here was to get through the warlike 
tribes that lay between the lakes and around the 
latter, of which Abba Rega was one of the most 
hostile chiefs. This king, it will be remembered, 
was the great foe of Baker, whom the latter drove 
out of the country, after burning his capital, and 
put Rionga in his place. He said then, that this 
treacherous king had gone to the shores of the 
Albert Nyanza. By the way, Baker's statement 
and Stanley's journal, placed together, seem to 
make it certain that the Muta Nzienge, which the 



3Q2 IN THE W^LDS OF AFRICA. 

latter reached, and the Albert Nyanza are the 
same ; for, in the first place, it will be remembered, 
Baker's last journey was to Unyoro, where he saw 
the Albert Nyanza. Now Stanley, it will be seen 
hereafter, traverses this same district to reach the 
lake he called Muta Nzienge. Again, Baker says 
that Abba Rega fled to the Albert Nyanza, and 
yet Stanley found him on Lake Muta Nzienge. 
If Stanley's attention had been called to this, we 
hardly think he would have made two lakes on his 
map, when, from these corroborating statements, 
there could have been but one. The fact that these 
separate statements, made two years apart, are 
purely incidental, makes the fact they go to prove 
the more certain to be true. It seems impossible 
that Baker and Stanley should reach through the 
same tribe two large and entirely separate lakes. 
Knowing not only of the hostility, but also the 
power of some of the tribes between Uganda and 
Lake Albert, Stanley asked Mtesa for fifty or 
sixty thousand men — a mighty army. With such 
a force he thought he could not only overcome all 
opposition on the way, but hold the camp he 
wished to establish, while he spent two months in 
exploring the lake. But Mtesa told him two 
thousand would be ample, which he would cheer- 
fully furnish. He said that he need not fear Abba 
Rega, for he would not dare to lift a spear against 
his troops, for he had seated him on the throne of 
Kameazi. Though Stanley was not convinced of 



MIL ITAR V ESC OR T. 3 03 

the truth of Mtesa's statements, he would not 
urge him further and accepted, with many ex- 
pressions of thanks, the two thousand soldiers, 
commanded by General Lamboozi, as an escort. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE EXPEDITION TO ALBERT NYANZA. 

STANLEY'S expedition consisted of one 
hundred and eighty men, which, with the 
troops Mtesa gave him, made a total of 
two thousand two hundred and ninety men. To 
this little army were attached some five hundred 
women and children, making a sum total of two 
thousand eight hundred. With this force, all or- 
dinary opposition could be overcome, and as it 
moved off with the sound of drums and horns, and 
the waving of the English and American flags, con- 
spicuous amid those of the negro army, it pre- 
sented a very animated appearance. But Stanley 
was destined to find out what others have learned 
before him, that a small force under one's own 
immediate command is better than a large, un- 
disciplined one, that is subject to the orders of 
another. 

General Lamboozi had no heart in this expe- 
dition, and soon showed it. But they moved off 
gayly over the swelling pasture-lands of Uganda, 
striking northwest toward the lake, which Stanley 
hoped to explore, as he had the Victoria Nyanza. 
The march through Uganda was a pleasant one, 

304 



SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAINS. ^ Q y 

and they at length reached the frontier of Unyoro 
and prepared for war. 

On the 5th of January they entered Abba 
Rega's territory, whom, two years before, Baker 
had driven from his throne, and who naturally felt 
peculiarly hostile to all white men. But no re- 
sistance was offered — the people, as if remember- 
ing the past, fleeing before them, leaving their 
provisions and everything behind them, of which 
the army made free use. Three days after they 
came to the base of a mighty mountain, called 
Kabrogo, rising five thousand five hundred feet 
into the air, presenting, in its naked, rugged out- 
line, a sublime appearance. They encamped that 
night on a low ridge, in sight of the Katonga 
River, flowing east in its course to the Victoria 
Nyanza, bringing up many associations to Stan- 
ley's mind — while to the west the Ruanga filled 
the night air with its thunderous sound, as it 
tumbled over cataracts toward the Albert Nyanza. 
From an eminence near by could be seen in the 
distance the colossal form of Gambaragara Moun- 
tain looming up from the wilderness — a second 
Mont Blanc, rising some three miles into the 
cloudless heavens. Though under the equator, 
snow is often seen on its summit. But what gives 
it peculiar interest is, that on its cold and lonely 
top dwell a people of an entirely distinct race, 
being white, like Europeans. The king of Uzigo 
once spoke to Stanley and Livingstone of this 



Q g IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 



singular people, and now the latter saw half a 
dozen of them. Their hair, he says, is "kinky," 
and inclined to brown in color; their features 
regular; lips thin, and noses well shaped. Alto- 
gether, they are a handsome race — the women, 
many of them possessing great beauty. Some of 
their descendants are scattered through the tribes 
living near the base of the mountain, but the main 
body occupy its lofty summit. The queen of one 
of the islands in the Victoria Nyanza is a descend- 
ent of them. The history of this singular people 
is wrapped in mystery. 

There is a tradition that the first king of Unyoro 
gave them the land at its base, and the approach 
of a powerful enemy first drove them to the top 
for safety. They have become so acclimated that 
they can stand the cold, while the dwellers of the 
plain are compelled to flee before it. Mtesa once 
dispatched his greatest general with an army of a 
hundred thousand men to capture them. They 
succeeded in making their way to a great height, 
but finally had to withdraw — the cold became so 
intense. 

The retreat of this pale-faced tribe is said to be 
inaccessible. The top is supposed to be the crater 
of an extinct volcano ; for on it there is a lake 
nearly a third of a mile long, from the centre of 
which rises a huge rock to a great height. Around 
the top of this runs a rim of rock, making a natural 
wall, in which are several villages, where the prin- 



A STRANGE RACE. ^ q 

cipal "medicine-man" and his mysterious people 
reside in their peculiar separateness. 

This account, if true, does not touch the origin 
of this peculiar race of people, nor in any way 
explain the fact of their existenee here in tropical 
Africa. Two men belonging to this tribe joined 
Stanley's expedition in this march to the Albert 
Lake, yet he seems to have obtained no information 
from them of the history of their tribe. Whether 
they had any traditions or not we are not informed 
— we only know that Stanley found them extremely 
uncommunicative. It is possible they had nothing 
to tell, for a vast majority of the negro tribes of 
Africa have no past; they care neither for the 
past or future, so far as external life is concerned, 
living only in the present. These two men occu- 
pied a high position, for some cause, in the army 
under Lamboozi, and were the only ones who were 
allowed more than two milch cows on the route. 
Various stories about these people were told 
Stanley, and it is difficult to come at the truth. 
About the only thing that seems established is 
that this white race exists, of whose origin nothing 
definite has as yet been obtained. Stanley says 
that he heard they were of Arab origin, but there 
are plenty of Arabs in Africa — in fact, all the sol- 
diers attached to the expedition were Arabs, and 
colonies of them had long existed in Central Africa ; 
but they are not white men. 

It seems impossible that Livingstone, years be- 



^ IO IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



fore, should have heard of this singular people, 
and Stanley seen specimens of them, if no such 
tribe really existed. It seems almost equally 
strange that they should be able for centuries to 
keep so isolated that their very home is a myth. 
The truth is, that Africa is a land of fables and 
traditions, that partake of the wonderful and often 
of the miraculous. Mr. Stanley was told of other 
tribes of white people living in a remote unknown 
region, possessing great ferocious dogs, and also 
of dwarfs of singular habits and customs. These 
traditions or reports, that are invariably vague in 
their character, usually have more or less founda- 
tion in truth. Mixed with the wonderful, that 
always holds an important place in savage litera- 
ture, there will generally be found at least a grain 
of truth ; and the traditions of white races among 
a people who had never seen white men, could 
hardly arise if no such tribes existed. 

The diet of this strange race consists of milk and 
bananas. Stanley says the first specimen he saw 
of the tribe was a young man, whom he first took 
for a young Arab from Cairo, who for some reason 
had wandered off to Uganda, and taken up his 
residence with King Mtesa. The two attached to 
his expedition would easily have been mistaken 
for Greeks in white shirts. Stanley, after seeing 
these white Africans, the stories concerning whose 
existence he had regarded as one of the fables of 
the ignorant, superstitious natives, says that he is 



TO WARD THE ALBER T NYANZA. 3 1 T 

ready to believe there is a modicum of truth in all 
the strange stories that he has been accustomed 
to listen to as he would to a fairy tale. Four years 
previous, while exploring the Tanganika with Liv- 
ingstone, they both smiled at the story told them 
of a white people living north of Uzigo, but now 
he had seen them, and if it were not that their hair 
resembles somewhat that of the negro, he should 
take them for Europeans. He heard afterwards that 
the first king of Kisbakka, a country to the south- 
west, was an Arab, whose scimiter is still preserved 
by the natives, and infers that these people may 
be his descendants. He also heard of a tribe that 
wore armor and used a breed of fierce and power- 
ful dogs in battle. 

From this point the expedition moved on toward 
the Albert Nyanza, along the southern bank of the 
Rusango River, a rapid, turbulent stream, winding 
in and out among the mountains, and rushing on- 
ward in fierce, rapid and headlong cataracts to the 
peaceful bosom of the lake. For ten hours they 
marched swiftly through an uninhabited country, 
and then emerged into a thickly populated district. 
Their sudden appearance, with drums beating and 
colors flying, rilled the people, who had no intima- 
tion of their coming, with such consternation, that 
they took to the woods, leaving everything behind 
them, even the porridge on the fire and the great 
pots of milk standing ready for the evening meal. 
Fields and houses were alike deserted in a twink- 



312 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



ling, and the army marched in and took posses- 
sion. Thus far they had met with no opposition 
whatever, and the warlike tribe Stanley had feared 
so much, and had taken such a large force to over- 
come, seemed to have no existence. In fact, the 
days had passed by monotonously ; for the most 
part the scenery was tame, and the march of the 
troops from day to day was without incident or 
interest, and now at this village they were within 
a few miles of the lake, to reach which was the 
sole object of all this display of force. Instead 
of fighting their way, they found themseives in 
undisputed possession of a large and populous 
district, with not a soul to give them any informa- 
tion. 

We confess there is something about this jour- 
ney from the Victoria Nyanza to the Albert that 
we do not understand. By the route on the map 
it must have been nearly two hundred miles, and 
yet the expedition started on January 5th, and on 
the evening of the 9th was within three miles of 
the latter, which would make the marching about 
fifty miles a day — an impossibility. 

Now, fifty miles a day for four days would be 
terrible marching for veteran troops. Hence, we 
say, the map or journal is wrong. If he took the 
route he has marked down and completed it in 
the time he says he did, one instead of two paral- 
lels of longitude should indicate the distance be- 
tween the two lakes. In fact, this whole expedition 



A MISERABLE FAILURE, 



313 



was such a miserable failure, that anywhere but in 
Africa it would be looked upon as a farce. . It 
shows how utterly futile it is to rely on the native 
Africans in any great enterprise. . The Arabs are 
bad enough, but they are fidelity itself compared 
to these black savages. 

Here was an expedition numbering nearly three 
thousand souls, organized to secure a safe march 
to a lake not five days distant. It met with no 
obstacles of any moment, reached the lake, and 
there, on the mere rumor that hostilities were in- 
tended, practically broke up and returned. Stan- 
ley had, with about three hundred men, traversed 
an unknown country for months, fought battles, 
and at the end of a thousand miles reached the 
lake he was seeking, pitched his camp, and with a 
crew of eleven men explored the lake in its entire 
circuit, and returned in safety. Here, with a small 
army, after a four days' march, he reaches the 
Albert Nyanza, yet does nothing but turn round 
and march back again. It would seem, at first 
sight, strange that if he could march a thousand 
miles from the sea to the Victoria Nyanza and 
then explore it, he could not now with the same 
men explore this lake without the aid of Lamboozi 
and his two thousand or more soldiers. Doubt- 
less he could but for this very army. Its disaffec- 
tion and declaration that they were not strong 
enough to resist the force about to be brought 
against them, created a panic among Stanley's 



3H 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



men. If two thousand fled, it would be madness 
for one hundred and eighty to stay. The simple 
truth is, the more such men one has with him, un- 
less he is the supreme head and his will is law, 
even to life and death, the worse he is off. Stan- 
ley, planning, controlling and directing every move- 
ment, is a power ; Stanley under the direction of a 
swaggering, braggart African negro general, is 
nobody. . 

Lamboozi did, next morning after their approach 
to the lake, send out two hundred scouts to capture 
some natives, by whom they could get a message 
to the king of the district, saying that they had no 
hostile intentions, and if permitted to encamp on 
the shores of the lake for two months, would pay 
in beads, cloth and wire for whatever provisions 
they consumed. Five were captured and sent to 
the king with this proposition, but he did not deign 
an answer. On the nth, they moved the camp 
to within a mile of the lake, on a plateau that rose 
a thousand feet above its surface. A place was 
selected for a camp and men and sent out to cap- 
ture all the canoes they could find. In three hours 
they returned with only five, and those too small 
for their purpose. But they brought back word 
that the whole country was aroused, and that a 
large body of strange warriors had arrived on the 
coast to aid the king in making war on the new- 
comers. 

General Lamboozi now became thoroughly 



THE INGLORIOUS RETURN, 



315 



alarmed, and stubbornly refused to grant Stanley's 
request to move to the edge of the lake and in- 
trench. It seemed probable that the natives meant 
to give battle, but with what numbers or prospect 
of success, Lamboozi took no measure to ascertain. 
Next day he resolved to march back. Entreaties 
and threats were alike in vain, and there was 
nothing left for Stanley to do but march back with 
him. He was greatly disappointed and thoroughly 
disgusted, but there was no help for it. That 
Unyoro and Abba Rega would be hostile, Stanley 
knew before he started, and on that account took 
so large a force with him. Yet he says, after this 
miserable failure, that it was a foolhardy attempt 
at the outset. Looking at it calmly, he pronounces 
it a great folly, redeemed from absurdity only by 
"the success of having penetrated through Unyoro 
and reached the Albert." It is difficult to see 
wherein lies the greatness of this success; for, 
according to his own account, it was one of the 
most peaceful marches he ever performed, with 
hardly enough incident in it to make it interesting. 
It matters little, however; all that can be said is, 
they marched up to the lake and then marched 
back again. 

On the morning of the 1 3th, they began their 
return in order of battle — five hundred spearmen 
in front, five hundred as a rear guard, and the 
expedition in the centre — but no enemy attacked 
them or attempted to do anything but pick up 



31 6 M THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

some stragglers. The next day the expedition 
formed the rear guard, and once some natives 
rushed out of the woods to attack them, but were 
quickly dispersed by a few shots. 

This is all that happened to this army in terrible 
Unyoro, and presents a striking contrast to Baker's 
gallant march through it with his little band, fight- 
ing every day for nearly a week. Four days 
after, without any further molestation, they re- 
entered Uganda, where Lamboozi turned off to 
his home. Stanley had heard no news of Gordon 
or of the steamers he was to place on the lake 
according to the plan of Baker; and though at first 
he thought that he would seek some other way to 
reach it and make his explorations, he finally re- 
solved to start for Tanganika, which he would 
reach in about four months, and explore it. Hence, 
while Lamboozi turned eastward toward Lake 
Victoria, he with his little band, turned southward. 
He sent a letter, however, to Mtesa, informing 
him of Lamboozi's cowardice and refusal to build 
a camp at Lake Albert, and telling him also that 
this redoubtable general had robbed him. He 
had intrusted to his care three porter's loads of 
goods to relieve his own carriers, and these he 
had appropriated as his own. 

When the letter reached the emperor he was 
thrown into a towering passion, and immediately 
dispatched a body of troops to seize the general, 
with orders to strip him of his wives, slaves, cattle 



MTESAS FRIENDSHIP. 



3*7 



and everything he possessed, and bring him bound 
to his presence. He also sent letter after letter 
to Stanley, begging him to return, and he would 
give him ninety thousand men, with brave gene- 
rals to command them, who would take him to 
Lake Albert, and protect him there till he had 
finished his explorations. Stanley was very much 
moved by this generous offer and the anxiety of 
the king to make amends for Lamboozi's poltroon- 
ery and thieving conduct. The noble savage felt 
it keenly that he, who valued so highly the esteem 
of Stanley, should be disgraced in his sight, and 
it was hard for the latter to refuse his urgent re- 
quest to be allowed to redeem his character and his 
pledge. But Stanley had had enough of Waganda 
troops, and felt that whatever was accomplished 
hereafter must be by his own well-trained, compact, 
brave little band. He kept on his way, and never 
saw Mtesa again. 

He had been able to add considerably to the 
geography of the country bordering on Lake 
Albert. Usongora, a promontory running thirty 
miles into the lake southward, he ascertained to 
be the great salt field, from whence all the sur- 
rounding countries obtain their salt. From all he 
could hear, it was truly a land of wonders, but he 
says the man who should attempt to explore it 
would need a thousand muskets, for the natives 
cannot be enticed into peace by cloth and beads. 
They care for nothing but milk and goat skins. 



3i8 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



"Among the wonders credited to it," he says, "are 
a mountain emitting fire and stones, a salt lake of 
considerable extent, several hills of rock-salt, a 
large plain encrusted thickly with salt and alkali, 
a breed of very large dogs of extraordinary feroc- 
ity, and a race of such long-legged natives, that 
ordinary mortals regard them with surprise and 
awe." They do not allow members of their tribe 
to intermarry with strangers, and their food, like 
that of the dwellers in the Himalaya Mountains, 
consists chiefly of milk. Mtesa once invaded their 
territory with one hundred thousand men, to cap- 
ture cows, of which the natives have an immense 
number, and in watching which consists their sole 
occupation. The army returned with twenty thou- 
sand, but they were obtained at such a fearful 
sacrifice of life, that the raid will not be repeated. 

Stanley rested a few days after Lamboozi left 
him, before proceeding northward. He then con- 
tinued his march leisurely through the country, 
inquiring on the way the character of the tribes 
westward toward that part of Lake Albert which 
extended south from where he struck it, but one 
and all were reported hostile to the passage of 
any strangers through their territory. 

Arriving on the Kagera River, in Karagwe, he 
found the King Rumanika, a mild, pleasant-spoken 
man and very friendly, but he told him that none of 
the neighboring tribes would let him enter their 
lands. Stanley being a little suspicious of the mo- 



LAKES OF KARA G WE. 



319 



tives that prompted this bad report of the sur- 
rounding tribes, to test him, asked him if he had 
any objections to his exploring his country. He 
said no, and cheerfully promised to furnish him 
guides and an escort, and his party should be 
supplied with food free of charge. Stanley, sur- 
prised at this generosity, at once got ready to 
start. He first went south to Lake Windermere, 
a small body of water so named by Captain Speke, 
because of its fancied resemblance to the lake of 
that name in England. The Lady Alice was taken 
there, screwed together, and launched on the 
peaceful waters. Accompanied by six native ca- 
noes, he sailed round it and then entered Kagera 
River, called by Speke the Kitangule. Suddenly 
it flashed on Stanley's mind that he had discov- 
ered the true parent of the Victoria Nile. It fed 
and drained this little lake some nine miles long. 
Moreover, he found that there was a depth of 
fifty-two feet of water and a breadth of one hun- 
dred and fifty feet. He therefore pushed up it 
some three days, and came to another lake nine 
miles long and six miles wide. Working up 
through the papyrus that covered the stream, he 
came to another lake or pond a mile and a half 
long. Ascending an eminence, he discovered that 
this whole portion of the river was a lake, large 
tracts of which were covered with papyrus, or that 
vegetation which we have seen Baker had to con- 
tend with in ascending" the Nile. It seemed solid 



^20 1N THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

ground, while in fact it was a large body of water 
covered over, with here and there an opening, 
making a separate lake, of which Windemere was 
the largest. This apparently underground lake 
was some eighty miles in length and fourteen in 
width. 

Following the river as it flowed eastward into 
the Victoria Nyanza, he found he entered another 
lake, thirteen miles long and some eight miles 
broad. This was, of course, the continuation of 
the lake, covered at intervals with this tropical 
vegetation, which gave to it the appearance of 
land. There were in all, seventeen of these lakes. 
This river now broadening as the formation of 
the land causes it to expand, now narrowing till 
its channel is forty feet deep, it at last tumbles 
over cataracts and rushes through rapids into the 
Victoria Nyanza. All this seems of little account, 
except, as Stanley says, he has found in it the true 
source of the Victoria Nile. 

The great and persistent efforts to find out the 
source of the Nile have led explorers to push 
their theories to an absurd extent. Because 
Herodotus made the Nile to rise in some large 
springs, they seem to think they must find some- 
thing back and beyond a great lake as its source. 
Now, when a river flows right on through one lake 
after another, making lakes as the formation of 
the ground allows, it of course maintains its in- 
tegrity and oneness. 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. ? 2 I 

In this case there is but one main stream and 
as long as the lakes are the mere spreading out 
of that stream on low, flat lands, it must remain 
the same. But when you come to great reservoirs 
like the Albert and Victoria Nyanza and the 
Tanganika— into which a hundred streams, and 
perhaps twice that number of springs, flow — to 
go beyond such reservoirs to find the head of the 
stream is bringing geography down to a fine point. 
The outlet is plain — you have traced the river up 
till you see it roaring from its great feeder. This 
is very satisfactory, and should end all research 
after the source of the stream. But to insist on 
taking measurements of a dozen different rivers 
that flow into a lake a thousand miles in circum- 
ference, to find which is a mile longest or ten feet 
deepest, and thus determine the source of the out- 
let, is preposterous. A lake covering twenty-two 
thousand square miles, fed by a hundred rivers, 
is a reservoir of itself, and not an expansion of 
any one river. One might as well try to prove 
which is the greatest source or feeder of the At- 
lantic Ocean — the Amazon, Mississippi or Congo. 

Thus we find Stanley, when he struck the Shime- 
eyu in Speke Gulf, declaring he had found the ex- 
reme southern source of the Nile; and now, when 
exploring another river of a larger volume on an- 
other side of the lake, he changes his mind and thinks 
he has made a great discovery in ascertaining at last 
the true source of the river. He found it over 
21 



-2 22 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

fifty feet deep, which showed what a volume of 
water it poured into the Victoria Nyanza. De- 
scending it again, he entered another lake some 
thirteen miles long by eight wide. Exploring this, 
he was driven back by the natives when he at- 
tempted to land, who hailed him with shrill shouts 
and wild war-cries. The Kaeera, through its en- 
tire length, maintains almost the same depth and 
volume. 

Returning to his generous host, he asked for 
guides to take him to the hot springs of Mtagata, 
the healing properties of which he had heard of 
far and wide from the natives. These were cheer- 
fully given, and after a march of two days he 
reached them. Here he was met by an astonish- 
ing growth of vegetation. Plants of an almost 
infinite variety, covered the ground, growing so 
thick and crowding each other so closely, that 
they became a matted mass — the smaller ones 
stifled by the larger — and out of which trees shot 
up an arrow's-flight into the air, with "globes of 
radiant green foliage upon their stem-like crowns." 
He found a crowd of diseased persons here, try- 
ing the effect of the water. Naked men and 
women were lying promiscuously around in the 
steaming water, half-asleep and half-cooked, for 
the water showed a temperature of one hundred 
and twenty-nine degrees. The springs were, 
however, of different temperature. The hottest 
one issued from the base of a rocky hill, while 



EXPLORING THE KAGERA. 



325 



four others, twenty degrees cooler, came bubbling 
up out of black mud, and were the favorites of 
the invalids. Stanley camped here three days, 
and bathed in the water and drank it, but could 
perceive no effect whatever on his system Re- 
turning to his friend Rumaniki, he prepared to 
start on his journey south to Lake Tanganika, 
and finish its explorations. 

Having discovered that the Kagera River 
formed a lake eighty miles long, and was a power- 
ful stream a long distance from its mouth, he re- 
solved, as it flowed from the south, to follow it up 
and try to find its source. A broad wilderness 
lay before him, the extent of which he did not ac- 
curately know, and he packed ten days' provisions 
on the shoulders of each man of the expedition, 
and bidding the soft-voiced pagan king, by whom 
he had been treated so kindly, a warm good-bye, 
he entered the forest and kept along the right 
bank of the stream. This was the 27th of March, 
and for six days he marched through an unin- 
habited wilderness, with nothing to break the 
monotony of the journey. At the end of that 
time he came to the borders of Karagwe and to 
the point where the Akanyaru River entered the 
Kagera. He dared not explore this river, for the 
natives that inhabit both banks are wild and fierce, 
having a deadly hatred of all strangers. They are 
like the long-legged race of Bumbireh, and he did 
not care to come in collision with them. They 



326 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



possess many cattle, and if one sickens or dies, 
they do not attribute it to accident, but believe it 
has been bewitched, and search the country 
through to find the stranger who has done it, and 
if he is found, he dies. 

All the natives of the region are passionately 
fond of their cows, and will part with anything 
sooner than with milk. Stanley says that his friend 
Rumaniki, with all his generosity, never offered 
him a teaspoonful of milk, and if he had given 
him a can of it, he believes his people would have 
torn him limb from limb. He thinks that half of 
their hostility arises from the fear of the evil effect 
that the presence of strangers will have on their 
cattle. Hence they keep a strict quarantine on 
their frontiers. It is not strange that they should 
cherish this stock carefully, for it is their sole 
means of subsistence. 

This long journey through various tribes is 
singularly barren of incident. On the route he lost 
his last dog, Bull, who had bravely held out in all 
their long wanderings, but at last he gave up and 
laid down and died, with his eyes fixed on the re- 
tiring expedition. He also met the redoubtable 
Mirambo, and found him not the blood-thirsty 
monster he had been represented to be, but a 
polite, pleasant-mannered gentleman, and gen- 
erous to a fault. They made blood brotherhood 
together, and became fast friends. At length, in 
the latter part of May, he reached Ujiji, where he 



AN AFRICAN VILLAGE. 



327 



formly found Livingstone. The following extract 
from a private letter of Stanley's, written to a 
friend while at Lake Victoria, gives a domestic 
picture that is quite charming, he says that 
"Kagehyi is a straggling village of cane huts, 
twenty or thirty in number, which are built some- 
what in the form of a circle, hedged around by 
a fence of thorns twisted between upright stakes. 
Sketch such a village in your imagination, and let 
the centre of it be dotted here and there with the 
forms of kidlings who prank it with the vivacity 
of kidlings under a hot, glowing sun. Let a 
couple of warriors and a few round-bellied children 
be seen among them and near a tall hut which is 
a chief's, plant a taller tree, under whose shade 
sit a few elders in council with their chief; so 
much for the village. 

" Now outside the village, yet, touching the fence, 
begin to draw the form of a square camp, about 
fifty yards square, each side flanked with low, 
square huts, under the eaves of which, plant as 
many figures of men as you please, for we have 
many, and you have the camp of the exploring 
expedition, commanded by your friend and humble 
servant. From the centre of the camp you may 
see Lake Victoria, or that portion of it I have 
called Speke Gulf, and twenty-five miles distant 
you may see table-topped Magita, the large island 
of Ukerewe, and toward the northwest a clear 
horizon, with nothing between water and sky to 



328 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

mar its level. The surface of the lake which ap- 
proaches to within a few yards of the camp is much 
ruffled just at present with a northwest breeze, 
and though the sun is growing hot, under the 
shade it is agreeable enough, so that nobody per- 
spires or is troubled with the heat. You must 
understand there is a vast difference between New 
York and Central African heat. Yours is a swelt- 
ering heat, begetting languor and thirst — ours is 
a dry heat, permitting activity and action without 
thirst or perspiration. If we exposed ourselves 
to the sun, we should feel quite as though we were 
being baked. Come with me to my lodgings, now. 
I lodo^e in a hut little inferior in size to the chief's. 
In it is stored the luggage of the expedition, which 
fills one-half. It is about six tons in weight, and 
consists of cloth, beads, wire, shells, ammunition, 
powder, barrels, portmanteaus, iron trunks, photo- 
graphic apparatus, scientific instruments, pontoons, 
sections of boat, etc., etc. The other half of the 
hut is my sleeping, dining and hall-room. It is 
dark as pitch within, for light cannot penetrate 
the mud with which the wood-work is liberally 
daubed. The floor is of dried mud, thickly covered 
with dust, which breeds fleas and other vermin to 
be a plague to me and my poor dogs. 

"I have four youthful Mercuries, of ebon color, 
attending me, who, on the march, carry my per- 
sonal weapons of defense. I do not need so many 
persons to wait on me, but such is their pleasure. 



BEAD CURRENCY. ~ 2 g 

They find their reward in the liberal leavings of 
the table. If I have a goat killed for European 
men, half of it suffices for two days for us. When 
it becomes slightly tainted, my Mercuries will beg 
for it, and devour it at a single sitting. Just out- 
side of the door of my hut are about two dozen 
of my men sitting, squatted in a circle and string- 
ing beads. A necklace of beads is each man's 
daily sum wherewith to buy food. I have now a 
little over one hundred and sixty men. Imagine 
one hundred and sixty necklaces given each day 
for the last three months — in the aggregate the 
sum amounts to fourteen thousand necklaces — in 
a year to fifty-eight thousand four hundred. A 
necklace of ordinary beads is cheap enough in the 
States, but the expense of carriage makes a neck- 
lace here equal to about twenty-five cents in value. 
For a necklace I can buy a chicken, or a peck of 
sweet potatoes, or half a peck of grain. 

"I left the coast with about forty thousand yards 
of cloth, which, in the States, would be worth 
about twelve and a half cents a yard, or altogether 
about five thousand dollars — the expense of port- 
age, as far as this lake, makes each yard worth 
about fifty cents. Two yards of cloth will purchase 
a goat or sheep; thirty will purchase an ox; fifteen 
yards are enough to purchase rations for the entire 
caravan. " 

Why these naked savages put such a high value 
on cloth, none of these African explorers informs 



33° 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



us. We can understand why they should like beads, 
brass wire, shells and trinkets of all sorts. They 
certainly use very little cloth on their persons. 

He adds: "These are a few of the particulars 
of our domestic affairs. The expedition is divided 
into eight squads of twenty men each, with an ex- 
perienced man over each squad. They are all 
armed with Snider's percussion-lock muskets. A 
dozen or so of the most faithful have a brace of 
revolvers in addition to other arms. " 

He then goes on to speak of the battles he has 
fought, and it is but just to him to give his feel- 
ings as he describes them in confidential private 
correspondence, on being compelled to kill the 
savages. He says: " As God is my judge, I would 
prefer paying tribute, and making these savages 
friends rather than enemies. But some of these 
people are cursed with such delirious ferocity that 
we are compelled to defend ourselves. They at- 
tack in such numbers and so sudden, that our re- 
peating rifles and Sniders have to be handled with 
such nervous rapidity as will force them back 
before we are forced to death ; for if we allow 
them to come within forty yards, their spears are 
as fatal as bullets ; their spears make fearful 
wounds, while their contemptible-looking arrows 
are as deadly weapons. * * * Since I left 
Zanzibar, I have traveled seven hundred and 
twenty miles by land and a thousand miles by 
water. This is a good six months' work." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

EXPLORATIONS OF LAKE TANGANIKA. 

IT was with strange feelings that Stanley caught 
from the last ridge the sparkling waters of 
Tanganika. Sweet associations were awak- 
ened at the sight, as he remembered with what a 
thrilling heart he first saw it gleam in the land- 
scape. Then it was the end of a long, wasting 
and perilous journey — the goal of his ambition, 
the realization of his fondest hopes ; for on its 
shores he believed the object for which he had 
toiled so long was resting. No more welcome 
sight ever dawned on mortal eye than its waters 
as they spread away on the horizon ; and though 
he should see it a hundred times, it will never 
appear to him like any other sheet of water. He 
has formed for it an attachment that will last for- 
ever ; and whenever in imagination it rises before 
him, it will appear like the face of a friend. 

As he now descended to Ujiji, it was with sen- 
sations as though he were once more entering civil- 
ized life, for there was something almost homelike 
about this Arab colony. People dressed in civil- 
ized garments were moving about the streets, 
cattle were coming down to the lake to drink, 
and domestic animals scattered here and there 
made quite a homelike scene. 

(330 



32 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



At first sight, it seems strange that Stanley- 
should have selected this lake as the next scene 
of his explorations. He had previously, with Liv- 
ingstone, explored thoroughly the upper half of it, 
and passed part way down the western side ; Liv- 
ingstone had been at the foot of it, and to crown 
all, Stanley had heard, before leaving Zanzibar, 
that Cameron had explored the entire southern 
portion, so that really there was nothing for him 
to do but follow a path which had been already 
trodden. To employ an expedition fitted out at 
so great a cost, and spend so -much valuable time 
in going over old ground, seems an utter waste 
of both time and labor, especially when such vast 
unexplored fields spread all around him. But 
there was a mystery about Tanganika, which Stan- 
ley probably suspected Cameron had not solved, 
and which he meant to clear up. Here was a 
lake over three hundred miles long, with perhaps 
a hundred streams, great and small, running into 
it, and yet with no outlet, unless Cameron had 
found it, which he thinks he did. To find this was 
the chief object of the expedition Stanley and Liv- 
ingstone made together to the north end of the 
lake. They had heard that the .Rusizi River at 
that extremity was the outlet, but they found it 
instead a tributary. In fact, they proved conclu- 
sively that there was no outlet at the northern end. 
It therefore must be at the southern, and if so, it 
was the commencement of a river that would be- 



CAMERON S OUTLET 



333 



come a mighty stream before it reached the ocean. 
But no such stream was known to exist. The 
Caspian Sea has large rivers flowing into it, but 
no outlet, yet it never fills up. Evaporation, it is 
supposed, accounts for this. But the Caspian is 
salt, while the Tanganika is fresh water, and such 
a large body of fresh water as this was never 
known to exist without an outlet, and if it could 
be that evaporation was so great as to equal all 
the water that runs into it, it would not remain so 
fresh as it is. 

We will let Cameron state his own case concern- 
ing the solution of this mystery. He started with 
two canoes and thirty-seven men, and sailed down 
the eastern shore of the lake, now ravished with 
the surpassing beauty of the scene composed of 
water and sky, and smiling shores, and again awed 
by beetling cliffs ; one evening camping on the 
green banks and watching the sun go down behind 
the purple peaks, and another drenched with rain, 
and startled by the vivid lightning and awful 
thunder crashes of a tropical storm, yet meeting 
with no incident of any peculiar interest to the 
reader. The natives were friendly, and he de- 
scribes the different villaees and customs of the 
people and their superstitions, which do not vary 
materially from other native tribes. At last, on 
the 3d of May, he entered the Lukuga Creek, 
which a chief told him was the outlet of the lake. 
He says that the entrance was more than a mile 



334 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



wide, "but closed up by a grass sand-bank, with 
the exception of a channel three or four hundred 
yards wide. Across this there is a rill where the 
surf breaks heavily, although there was more than 
a fathom of water at its most shallow part. " The 
next day he went down it four or five miles, until 
navigation was rendered impossible, owing to the 
masses of floating vegetation. Here the depth 
was eighteen feet, and breadth six hundred yards, 
and the current a knot and a half an hour. The 
chief who accompanied him said that it emptied 
into the Lualaba. He tried in vain to hire men to 
cut a passage through the vegetation that he might 
explore the river. This was all the knowledge he 
obtained by actual observation, the rest of his in- 
formation being obtained from the natives. 

Now, we must say, that this is a sorry exhibit for 
the outlet to a lake almost twice as long as Lake 
Ontario. That such an immense body of water 
should trickle away at this rate seems very extra- 
ordinary. Stanley at Ujiji started inquiries respect- 
ing this stream, and found Cameron's guide, who 
stoutly denied that the river flowed south from 
the lake. Another veteran guide corroborated 
this statement, while many others declared that 
before Cameron came, they had never heard of an 
outflowing river. 

These contradictory statements, together with 
the universal testimony that the lake was continu- 
ally rising (the truth of which he could not doubt, 



A WHOLESALE MASSACRE. 



335 



as he saw palm-trees which stood in the market- 
place when he was there in 1871, now one hundred 
feet out in the lake), made him resolve to explore 
this stream himself. He started on the nth of 
June, and three days after landed to take a hunt, 
and soon came upon a herd of zebras, two of which 
he bagged, and thus secured a supply of meat. 

On the 19th, on approaching a large village, 
they were astonished to see no people on the 
shore. Landing, they were still more astonished 
at the death-silence that reigned around, and ad- 
vancing cautiously came upon corpses of men and 
women transfixed with spears or with their heads 
cut off. Entering into the village they found that 
there had been a wholesale massacre. A descent 
had been made upon the place, but by whom no 
one was left to tell. Its entire population had 
been put to death. 

As Stanley proceeded, he found many evidences 
of the steady rise of the lake. He contiuued on 
his course, finding the same varied scenery that 
Cameron did, with nothing of peculiar interest 
occurring, except to the travelers themselves, and 
at length came to the Lukuga Creek. He found 
various traditions and accounts here — one native 
said the water flowed both ways. The spot on 
which Cameron encamped, some two years before, 
was now covered with water, another evidence 
that the lake was rising. Stanley very sensibly 
says, that the "rill," which Cameron states runs 



336 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



directly across the channel, is conclusive evidence 
that the Lukuga runs into the lake, not out of it; 
for it must be formed by the meeting of the inflow- 
ing current and the waves. An outpouring stream 
driven onward by waves would make a deep 
channel, not a dam of sand. He tried several 
experiments, by which he proved, to his entire 
satisfaction, that the stream flowed into the lake 
instead of being its outlet. Having settled this 
question he. set about finding the other river, which 
the natives declared flowed out or westward. After 
traveling some distance inland he did find a place 
where the water flowed west ; it was, however, a 
mere trickling stream. His account of his explo- 
rations here, and of the traditions of the natives, and 
his description of the formation of the country 
and of its probable geological changes, is quite 
lengthy, and posseses but little interest to the 
general reader. 

The result of it all, however, is that he believes 
the Lukuga was formerly a tributary of the lake, 
the bed of which at some former time was lifted 
up to a higher level ; that the whole stretch of 
land here has been sunk lower by some convul- 
sion of nature, taking the Lukuga with it, and thus 
making- a sort of dam of the land at the foot, which 
accounts for the steady rise of the* river year by 
year ; and that in three years the lake will rise 
above this dam, and, gathering force, will tear like 
a resistless torrent through all this mud and vege- 



WHERE IS THE OUTLET? ~~y 

tation, and roaring on, as the Nile does where it 
leaves the Victoria Nyanza, will sweep through 
the country till it pours its accumulated waters 
into the Lualaba, and thus swell the Congo into a 
still larger Amazon of Africa. This seems to be 
the only plausible solution of the mystery attached 
to Tanganika. The only objection to it is, no such 
convulsion or change of the bed of the Tanganika 
seems to have occurred during this generation, 
and what has become, then, for at least seventy 
years, of all the waters these hundred rivers have 
been pouring into the lake ? We should like the 
estimate of some engineer of how many feet that 
lake would rise in fifty years, with all its tributaries 
pouring incessantly such a flood into it. We are 
afraid the figures would hardly harmonize with this 
slow rise of the lake. It may be that there is a 
gradual filtering of the water through the ooze at 
the foot, which will account for the slow filling up 
of the great basin — a leakage that retards the pro- 
cess of accumulation. But if Stanley's explora- 
tions and statements can be relied upon, the mys- 
tery will soon solve itself, and men will not have 
to hunt for an outlet long. He makes the length 
of Tanganika three hundred and twenty-nine geo- 
graphical miles, and its average breadth twenty- 
eight miles. 

The wonderful influence of Livingstone over all 
African explorers is nowhere more visible than at 
Ujiji, on both Cameron and Stanley. Both of these 

22 



338 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

set out with one object — to try to complete the 
work that the great and good man's death had left 
unfinished. His feet had pressed the shores of 
almost every lake they had seen, as well as of 
others which they had not seen. The man had 
seemed to be drawn on westward until he reached 
Nyangwe, where dimly arose before him. the At- 
lantic Ocean, into which the waters flowing past 
his camp might enter, and did enter, if they were 
not the Nile. Discouraged, deserted and driven 
back, he could not embark on the Lualaba and 
float downward with its current till he should un- 
veil the mystery that wrapped it. Cameron be- 
came filled with the same desire, but disappointed, 
though not driven back, he had pressed on to the 
ocean, into which he had no doubt the river emp- 
tied, though by another route. And now, last of 
three, comes Stanley, and instead of finishing* Liv- 
ingstone's work around the lakes, he, too, is drawn 
forward to the same point. It seemed to be the 
stopping-place of explorations in Africa ; and al- 
though he knew that Cameron had not returned 
like Livingstone, and hence might have discovered 
all that was to be discovered, so making further 
explorations in that direction useless, still he felt 
that he must go on and find out for himself. 
True, there was an interesting district between 
Ujiji and the Lualaba. There was the beautiful 
Manyema region, about which Livingstone had 
talked to him enthusiastically, with its new style 



DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. ^ „ 

of architecture, and beautiful women and simple- 
minded people. But those did not form the at- 
traction. He must stand on the spot where Liv- 
ingstone stood, and look off with his yearning 
desire, and see if he could not do what this good 
man was willing to risk all to accomplish. 

At all events, he must move somewhere at once, 
and westward seemed the most natural direction 
to take, for if he stayed in Ujiji much longer the 
expedition would break up. He found on his re- 
turn that the small-pox had broken out in camp, 
filling the Arabs with dismay. He had taken pre- 
caution on starting to vaccinate every member of 
his party, as he supposed, and hence he felt safe 
from this scourge of Africa. He did not lose a 
single man with it on his long journey from the 
sea to the Victoria Nyanza. But it had broken 
out in Ujiji with such fury that a pall was spread 
over the place, and it so invaded his camp that in 
a few days eight of his men died. 

This created a panic, and they began to desert 
in such. numbers that he would soon be left alone. 
Thirty-eight were missing, which made quite a 
perceptible loss in a force of only one hundred 
and seventy men. The chiefs of the expedition 
were thoroughly frightened, but they told him that 
the desertions would increase if he moved west- 
ward, for the men were as much afraid of the can- 
nibals there, as of the small-pox in their midst. 
They were told horrible stories of these cannibals 



*a 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

till their teeth chattered with fear. Besides there 
were hobgoblins — monsters of every kind in the 
land beyond the Tanganika. Stanley saw, there- 
fore, that prompt measures must be taken, and 
he at once clapped thirty-two of the discontented in 
irons, drove them into canoes, and sent them off 
to Ukurenga. He with the rest followed after by 
land to Msehazy Creek, where the crossing of the 
lake was to be effected. Reaching the other side 
he proceeded to Uguha, where, on mustering his 
force, he found but one hundred and twenty-seven 
out of one hundred and seventy, showing that 
one-third had disappeared. Among the last to 
go, and the last Stanley expected would leave him, 
was young Kalulu, whom he had taken home to 
the United States with him on his return from his 
first expedition. He had him placed in school in 
England for eighteen months, and he seemed de- 
voted to Stanley. A gloom hung over the camp, 
and desertion was becoming too contagious. If 
such men as Kalulu could not be trusted, Stanley 
knew of no one who could be, and with his usual 
promptness he determined to stop it. He there- 
fore sent back Pocoke and a faithful chief with a 
squad of men to capture them. 

Paddling back to Ujiji, they one night came 
upon six, who, after a stout fight, were secured 
and brought over to camp. Afterward young 
Kalulu was found on an island and brought in. 
This desertion is a chronic disease among the 



CURIOUS CUSTOMS. ?*? 

Arabs. Their superstitious fears are quickly 
aroused, and they are easily tempted to break 
their contract and leave in the lurch the man to 
whom they have hired themselves. 

Stanley's march to Manyeme was noticeable 
only for the curious customs or habits of the peo- 
ple, and on the 5th of October he reached the 
frontier of this wonderful country. Livingstone 
had halted here several months, and this was an 
inducement for Stanley to stop a few days. The 
weapons of the natives were excellent, and there 
was one custom that attracted his particular at- 
tention — the men wore lumps in various forms of 
mud and patches of mud on their beard, hair and 
head, while the women wove their front hair into 
head-dresses, resembling bonnets, leaving the 
back hair to wave in ringlets over their shoulders. 
He, as well as Cameron, was amazed at their vil- 
lages, which, usually had one or more broad 
streets running through them, each being from 
one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet wide, 
and along which are ranged the square huts, with 
well-beaten, cleanly-kept clay floors, to which 
they cheerfully invite strangers. 

On the 1 2th he reached the village on the Luma 
which he had been following, where both Living- 
stone and Cameron Left it and turned directly 
west to Nyangwe. He, however, determined to 
follow it till it reached the Lualaba, and then pro- 
ceed by this stream to the same place. He found 



;44 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



the natives kind but timid, with many curious tra- 
ditions and customs. The expedition at last 
reached the Lualaba, and moving majestically 
through the forest and making rapid marches, it 
arrived on the next day at Tubunda. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

NYANGWE AND ITS HISTORY 

NYANGWE is the farthest point west in 
Africa ever reached by a white man who 
came in from the east. It is about three 
hundred and fifty miles from Ujiji, or a little over 
the distance across New York State, but the 
journey is not made in one day — Stanley was 
forty days in accomplishing it. Here he found 
that Livingstone, the first white man ever seen 
there, must have remained from six to twelve 
months. Livingstone had made a profound im- 
pression on the natives of this region. " Did you 
know him?" asked an old chief, eagerly. Stanley 
replying in the affirmative, he turned to his sons 
and brothers, and said: "He knew the good white 
man. Ah, we shall hear all about him." Then 
turning to Stanley, he said: "Was he not a very 
good man?" "Yes," replied the latter, "he was 
good, my friend ; far better than any white man or 
Arab you will ever see again." "Ah," said the 
old negro, "you speak true; he was so gentle and 
patient, and told us such pleasant stories of the 
wonderful land of the white people — the aged 
white was a good man indeed." 

Livingstone made a strong impression on Stan- 

(345) 



346 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 



ley also, who, speaking of him says: "What has 
struck me while tracing- Livingstone to his utmost 
researches — this Arab depot of Nyangwe, — re- 
vived all my grief and pity for him, even more so 
than his own relation of sorrowful and heavy 
things, is, that he does not seem to be aware that 
he was sacrificing himself unnecessarily, nor to 
be warned of the havoc of age and that his old 
power had left him. With the weight of years 
pressing upon him, the shortest march wearying 
him, compelling him to halt many days to recover 
his strength, and frequent attacks of illness pros- 
trating him, with neither men nor means to escort 
him and enable him to make practical progress, 
Livingstone was at last like a blind and infirm 
man moving aimlessly about. He was his own 
worst taskmaker." 

Whether Stanley's views of the mental con- 
dition of Livingstone — growing out of his sick- 
ness and want of money while in Nyangwe — are 
correct or not, one thing is true: that after the 
great explorer had seemingly reached the very 
point when the problem was to be solved as to 
where the mysterious Lualaba flowed, he waited 
there till he found a caravan going- east, and then 
returned to Ujiji "a sorely tried and disappointed 
man." Standing on the last point which this in- 
trepid explorer reached, Stanley is reminded of 
his own earnest efforts to induce that worn hero 
to return home and recruit, to which the invaria- 



A BEAUTIFUL REGION. ^aj 

ble answer was: "No, no, no; to be knighted, as 
you say, by the Queen, welcomed by thousands of 
admirers, yes — but impossible, must not, can not, 
will not be." 

Stanley, on this outmost verge of exploration, 
remembered the words of Livingstone when 
speaking of the beauties of the region lying west 
of the Goma Mountains, and says, "It is a most 
remarkable region; more remarkable than any- 
thing I have seen in Africa. Its woods, or forest, 
or jungles, or brush — I do not know by what par- 
ticular term to designate the crowded, tall, straight 
trees, rising from an impenetrable mass of brush, 
creepers, thorns, gums, palm, ferns of all sorts, 
canes and grass — are sublime, even terrible. In- 
deed, nature here is remarkably or savagely beau- 
tiful. From every point the view is enchanting — 
the outlines eternally varying, yet always beauti- 
ful, till the whole panorama seems like a chang- 
ing vision. Over all, nature has flung a robe of 
varying green, the hills and ridges are blooming, 
the valleys and basins exhale perfume, the rocks 
wear garlands of creepers, the stems of the trees 
are clothed with moss, a thousand streamlets of 
cold, pure water stray, now languid, now quick, 
toward the north and south and west. The whole 
makes a pleasing, charming illustration of the 
bounteousness and wild beauty of tropical nature. 
But, alas! all this is seen at a distance; when you 
come to travel through this world of beauty, the 



348 



IiV THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



illusion vanishes — the green grass becomes as dif- 
ficult to penetrate as an undergrowth, and that 
lovely sweep of shrubbery a mass of thorns, the 
gently rolling ridge an inaccessible crag, and the 
green mosses and vegetation in the low grounds 
that look so enchanting, impenetrable forest 
belts. ,, 

Stanley once penetrated into one of these great 
forests and was so overwhelmed by the majesty 
and solemn stillness of the scene, that he forgot 
where he was, and his imagination went back to 
the primeval days when that great, still forest was 
sown, till the silent trees seemed monuments of 
past history. But still, this district of Manyema 
(pronounced in various ways), he does not think 
so interesting as that of Uregga. In speaking of 
the Lualaba, after describing the various ways in 
which it is spelled and pronounced, he says if he 
could have it his own way he would call it "Liv- 
ingstone River, or Livingstone's Lualaba," to com- 
memorate his discovery of it and his heroic 
struggles against adversity to explore it. The 
letter in which he thus speaks of this region is 
dated November ist, 1876. In three days he 
says he is going to explore this mysterious river 
to the utmost of his power. Two days previous 
to this letter, he wrote a long one on the horrors 
of the slave-trade that casts a pall as black as 
midnight over all this tropical beauty. He says, 
that from Unyanyembe to Ujiji one sees horrors 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 



349 



enough, but in this region they are multiplied ten- 
fold. The traffic in slaves is so profitable and 
keeps up such a brisk trade with Zanzibar and the 
interior of Africa, that the native chiefs enter into 
it on the grandest scale, or rather it is more ac- 
curate to say, banditti under the leadership of so- 
called chiefs enter into it thus, and carry it on 
with remorseless zeal. 

Raids are made on small independent villages, 
the aged are slain and hung up to terrify other vil- 
lages into a meek acquiescence in their demands, 
and young men, young women, and children are 
marched off to Ujiji, from whence they are taken 
to Zanzibar, becoming, by their cruel treatment on 
the -route, living skeletons before they reach their 
destination. Gangs, from one hundred to eight 
hundred, of naked, half-starved creatures Stanley 
met in his travels, and he wonders that the civil- 
ized world will let insignificant Zanzibar become 
the mart of such an accursed, cruel traffic. 

There are regular hunting-grounds for slaves. 
When the business is dull, the inhabitants are left 
to grow and thrive, just like game out of sea- 
son in a gentleman's park ; but when the business 
begins to look up, the hunt begins, and the smiling 
villages become arid wastes. The country, long 
before he reached Nyangwe, was a wilderness, 
where a few years before dwelt a happy popula- 
tion. Stanley gives extracts from his diary, show- 
ing up the horrors of this system, which make the 



35o 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



heart sicken as it thinks of what is daily transpir- 
ing in this unknown land. 

Livingstone saw enough when he was at this 
place to awaken his deepest indignation, but since 
that time the Arabs have pushed further inland, 
and swept, with the besom of destruction, districts 
that in his time had been but slightly touched. 

The trade in ivory is but another name for trade 
in human beings, and the only real commerce this 
vast, fruitful region has with Zanzibar is through 
its captured inhabitants, while the slain equal the 
number sent into captivity. But, while Mr. Stan- 
ley feels keenly the disgrace to humanity of this 
accursed traffic, he evidently does not see so clearly 
the way to put a stop to it. He is opposed to fili- 
bustering of all kinds, and to the interference of 
strong powers to coerce weak ones on the ground 
of humanity or Christianity, because it opens the 
door too wide to every kind of aggression. In 
fact, this makes it only necessary to use some 
philanthropic catch-word, in order to justify the 
annexation of any feeble territory. 

Stanley evidently thinks there is some limit to 
the Monroe doctrine of non-interference in the 
affairs of other nations, as the following extract 
from one of his letters shows, in which, after discuss- 
ing the whole matter carefully, he says he writes, 
" hoping he may cause many to reflect upon the 
fact that there exists one little State on this globe, 
which is about equal in extent to one English 



SLAVE PENS. 



351 



county, with the sole privilege of enriching itself 
by wholesale murder, and piracy and commerce in 
human beings, and that a traffic forbidden in all 
other nations should be permitted, furtively mo- 
nopolized by the little island of Zanzibar, and by 
such insignificant people as the subjects of Prince 
Burghosh." Mr. Stanley is entirely opposed to 
filibustering and encroachments of strong powers 
on feeble ones, under the thousand and one false 
pretences advanced in support of unrighteous 
conquests, yet he evidently thinks little Zanzibar 
should be wiped out, or cease to be the source and 
centre of this cruel traffic in human beings. One 
has to travel, he says, in the heart of Africa to see 
all the horrors of this traffic. 

The buying and selling of a few slaves on the 
coast gives no idea of its horrors. At Unyambembe, 
sometimes a sad sight is seen. At Uganda the 
trade begins to assume a wholesale character, yet 
it wears here a rather business aspect ; the slaves 
by this time become hardened to suffering, " they 
have no more tears to shed," the chords of sympa- 
thy have been severed and they seem stolid and 
indifferent. At Ujiji, one sees a regular slave- 
market established. There are " slave-folds and 
pens, " like the stock-yards of railroads for cattle 
into which the naked wretches are driven by hun- 
dreds, to wallow on the ground and be half-starved 
on food not fit for hogs. By the time they reach 
here they are mere " ebony skeletons, " attenuated, 



352 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



haggard, gaunt human frames. Their very voices 
have sunk to a mere hoarse whisper, which comes 
with an unearthly sound from out their parched, 
withered lips. Low moans, like those that escape 
from the dying, fill the air, and they reel and 
stagger when they attempt to stand upright, so 
wasted are they by the havoc of hunger. They 
look like a vast herd of black skeletons, and as one 
looks at them in their horrible sufferings he cannot 
but exclaim, " how can an all-merciful Father 
permit such things ?" No matter whether on the 
slow and famishing march or crowded like strayed 
pigs in the overloaded canoes, it is the same un- 
varying scene of hunger and horror, on which the 
cruel slave-trader looks without remorse or pity. 

It may be asked how are these slaves obtained. 
The answer is, by a systematic war waged in the 
populous country of Marungu by banditti, sup- 
ported by Arabs. These exchange guns and 
powder for the slaves the former capture, which 
enables them to keep up the war. These Arabs, 
who sell the slaves on the coast, furnish the only 
market for the native banditti of the interior. 
These latter are mostly natives of Unyamwege 
who band together to capture all the inhabitants 
of villages too weak to resist them. Marungu is 
the great productive field of their Satanic labors. 
Here almost every small village is independent, 
recognizing no ruler but its own petty chief. 
These are often at variance with each other, and 



HUNTING THE SLAVES. 



-> r •-> 

o5j 



instead of banding together to resist a common 
foe, they look on quietly while one after another 
is swept by the raiders. In crossing a river, Stan- 
ley met two hundred of these wretches chained 
together, and, on inquiry, found they belonged to 
the governor of Unyambembe, a former patron of 
Speke and Burton, and had been captured by an 
officer of the prince of Zanzibar. This prince had 
made a treaty with England to put a stop to this 
horrible traffic, and yet here was one of his officers 
engaged in it, taking his captives to Zanzibar, and 
this was his third batch during the year. 

There are two or three entries in Stanley's 
journal which throw much light on the way this 
hunt for slaves is carried on. 

''October 17th. Arabs organized to-day from 
three districts, to avenge the murder and eating 
of one man and ten women by a tribe half-way 
between Kassessa and Nyangwe. After six days' 
slaughter, the Arabs returned with three hundred 
slaves, fifteen hundred goats, besides spears, etc." 

" October 24th. The natives of Kabonga, near 
Nyangwe, were sorely troubled two or three days 
ago by a visit paid them by Uanaamwee in the 
employ of Mohommed el Said. Their insolence 
was so intolerable that the natives at last said, 
' we will stand this no longer. They will force 
our wives and daughters before our eyes if we 
hesitate any longer to kill them, and before the 
Arabs come we will be off.' Unfortunately, only 
23 



354 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

one was killed, the others took fright and disap- 
peared to arouse the Arabs with a new grievance. 
To-day, an Arab chief set out for the scene of 
action with murderous celerity, and besides cap- 
turing ten slaves, killed thirty natives and set fire 
to eight villages — 'a small prize,' the Arabs said." 

41 October 1 7th. The same man made an attack 
on some fishermen on the left bank of the Lua- 
laba. He left at night and returned at noon with 
fifty or sixty captives, besides some children." 

" Are raids of this kind frequent?" asked Stan- 
ley. 

" Frequent !" was the reply, " sometimes six or 
ten times a month." 

One of these captives said to Stanley, on the 
march from Mana to Manibo, " Master, all the 
plain lying between Mana, Manibo and Nyangvve, 
when I first came here eight years ago, was popu- 
lated so thickly that we traveled through gardens, 
villages and fields every quarter of an hour. 
There were flocks of goats and black pigs arourtd 
every village. You can see what it now is." He 
saw that it was an uninhabited wilderness. At 
that time, Livingstone saw how the country was 
becoming depopulated before the slave-traders, 
but says Stanley, "Were it possible for him to 
rise from the dead and take a elance at the dis- 
tricts now depopulated, it is probable that he 
would be more than ever filled with sorrow at the 
misdoings of these traders." 



HO W TO STOP IT. ?r~ 

He thinks there is but one way of putting a per- 
petual end to this infernal traffic, and that is by 
stopping it in the interior. English and American 
cruisers on the coast can have but partial success. 
The suggestion of the Khedive of Egypt is the right 
one. Annex the interior of Africa to some strong 
power and establish stations on the great high- 
ways over which these traders are compelled to 
transport their human chattels, where they will be 
pounced upon and made to give up their captives, 
and the trade will soon cease from its being too 
hazardous and unprofitable. 

Portugal has no right to the west coast, which 
it claims. Let England, or England and America 
together, claim and exercise sovereignty over it, and 
it will need no cruisers on the coast to stop the 
trade in slaves. At any rate, it is high time the 
Christian nations of the world put a stop to this 
disgrace and blot upon humanity. 



A 



CHAPTER XX. 

ORGANIZING A NEW EXPEDITION. 

RRIVING near Nyangwe, one of the first 
to meet Stanley was the Arab, Tipo- 
tipo, or Tipo-tib, or Tippu-tib (which 
is the proper spelling neither Cameron nor Stanley 
seems to know), who had once conducted Came- 
ron as far as Utotera or the Kasongo country. 
He was a splendid specimen of a man physically, 
and just the one to give Stanley all the informa- 
tion he wanted respecting Cameron's movements. 
He told him that the latter wanted to follow the 
river to the sea, but that his men were unwilling 
to go; besides, no canoes could be obtained for 
the purpose. He also told him that after staying 
a long time at Kasongo, he had joined a company 
of Portuguese traders and proceeded south. 

One thing - was clear : Cameron had not settled 
the great problem that Livingstone wished of all 
things to solve — this great unfinished work had 
been left for Stanley to complete, or to leave for 
some future, more daring or more successful ex- 
plorer. Could he get canoes — could he surmount 
difficulties that neither Livingstone nor Cameron 
were able to overcome ? were the grave questions 
he asked himself. He had long dialogues with 

356 



NE W PURPOSES. *cj 

Tipo-tipo and other Arab chiefs, all of whom dis- 
suaded him from attempting to follow the Lualaba 
by land, or trying to get canoes. They told him 
frightful stories of the cannibals below — of dwarfs 
striped like Zebras and ferocious as demons, with 
poisoned arrows, living on the backs of elephants, 
of anacondas, of impenetrable forests — in short, 
they conjured up a country and a people that no 
stranger who placed any value on his life would 
dare to encounter. 

The fact that the Lualaba flowed north to a 
distance beyond the knowledge of the natives was 
doubtless one, and perhaps the chief, reason why 
Livingstone suspected it emptied into the Nile. 
Stanley now knew better. How far north it might 
flow before it turned he could not say, yet he felt 
certain that turn west it would, sooner or later, 
and empty into the Atlantic Ocean, and the pos- 
sibility of his tracing it had a powerful fascination 
for him. Its course he knew lay through the 
largest half of Africa, which was a total blank. 
Here, by the way, it is rather singular that Stan- 
ley, following Livingstone who alone had explored 
Lake Bembe and made it the source of the Lua- 
laba, adopts his statement, while Cameron, on 
mere hearsay, should assert that its source was in 
marshes. The river, after leaving the lake, flows 
two hundred miles and empties into Lake Mweru, 
a body of water containing about one thousand 
eight hundred square miles. Issuing from this, it 



358 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



takes the name of Lualaba, which it holds and loses 
by turns as it moves on its mighty course for one 
thousand one hundred miles, till it rolls, ten miles 
wide at its mouth, into the broad Atlantic as the 
Congo. 

Stanley, from first to last, seemed to have a 
wonderful power, not only over the Arabs that 
composed his expedition as we have before men- 
tioned, but over all those with whom he came in 
contact in his explorations. Notwithstanding all 
the horrors depicted as awaiting any attempt to 
advance beyond Nyangwe, this Tipo-tipo agreed, 
for $5,000, to accompany him with a strong escort 
a distance of sixty camps, on certain conditions. 
That he would do it on any conditions was extra- 
ordinary, considering the fact, if it was a fact, that 
the last attempt to penetrate this hostile territory 
resulted in the loss of five hundred men. The 
conditions were, that the march should commence 
from Nyangwe — not occupy more than three 
months — and that if Stanley should conclude, at the 
end of the sixty marches, that he could not get 
through, he would return to Nyangwe ; or if he 
met Portuguese traders and chose to go to the 
coast in the direction they were moving, he should 
detail two-thirds of his force to accompany said 
Tipo back to Nyangwe for his protection. 

To all these Stanley agreed, except the one 
promising, if he concluded to go on at the end of the 
sixty marches, to give him two-thirds of the men of 



NAPOLEONIC SPIRIT. 



361 



the expedition to see him safely back. On this article 
of agreement there was a hitch, and Stanley showed 
his Yankee education, if not Yankee birth, by put- 
ting in a last article, by which, if Tipo-tipo through 
cowardice should fail to complete his sixty marches, 
he should forfeit his $5,000, and have no escort for 
his return. Stanley then gave him time to think of 
it, while he went to see young Pocoke and confer 
with him. They went over the whole ground to- 
gether, and Stanley told him it was a matter of 
life and death with both of them ; failure would be 
certain and perhaps horrible death ; success would 
be honor and glory. It was a fearful picture he 
drew of the possible future, but Frank's ready re- 
sponse was, "go on." 

At this point Stanley reveals one of his strong- 
est characteristics, which we mentioned in the 
sketch of him at the beginning of the book — the 
Napoleonic quality of relying on himself. Ordi- 
nary well-established principles and rules often 
condemned the action of Bonaparte — results ap- 
proved them. So ordinary prudence would have 
turned Stanley back as it did Cameron — the stories 
told him of the character of the tribes in advance 
— the obstacles he would have to encounter, all the 
mystery, perils and uncertainty of the future — the 
universal warning and fearful prognostications of 
those who were supposed to know best — his iso- 
lated condition in the heart of Africa— all things 
that could surround a man to deter him in his 



362 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



actions, were gathered there around that lonely 
man at that outpost of civilized enterprise ; yet, 
falling back on himself, rising superior to all out- 
ward influences, gauging all the probabilities and 
possibilities by his own clear perceptions and in- 
domitable will, he determined to push forward. 
If he could not get canoes, which he feared he 
could not any more than Cameron, then he would 
try to follow the river by land; if that failed, he would 
make canoes in the African forest; if he could not 
go peaceably, he would fight his way, and not turn 
back till deserted by his own men and left alone 
in the midst of a savage, hostile people. This 
determination, under the circumstances, shows 
him to be no ordinary character, and marks him 
as one who in a revolution would control the 
stormy elements around him and mount to power 
or to the scaffold. 

There were also minor obstacles attending this 
desperate effort to trace the Lualaba to the sea. 
He had thirteen women in his expedition, wives 
of his chief Arabs, some of them with young chil- 
dren, others in various stages of pregnancy, who 
would be delivered of children before they reached 
the Atlantic coast, and under what circumstances 
the hour of travail might come no one knew. It 
might be in the hour of battle, or in the desperate 
race for life, when one hour's delay would be total 
ruin to the expedition and death' to all. It might 
be in the struggle and fight around a cataract, or 



AN ESCOR T SECURED. - £ 



J w O 



in the day of extreme famine. A thousand things 
had to be taken into consideration before resolving 
on this desperate movement. But no matter, the 
obstacles might even be more formidable than 
represented, the risk tenfold greater, his mind 
was made up— the secrets of that mysterious river 
he would unlock, or his last struggles and myste- 
rious fate would add one more to the secrets it 
held. 

At length the contract with Tipo-tipo to escort 
him sixty marches was made and signed, and then 
Stanley informed his own men of it, and told them 
that if at the end of that time they came across a 
caravan bound for the west coast, part would join 
it, and the rest might, if they wished, return to 
Nyangwe. They agreed to stand by the con- 
tract and Stanley moved forward into Nyangwe. 
Here Stanley was received by one of the two 
Arab chiefs that bear sway in the place, with be- 
coming courtesy. He seemed surprised at the 
orderly, quiet march of this force, and still more 
when told that the distance from Tanganika, some 
three hundred and forty miles, had been made in 
about forty days. 

Stanley describes minutely the place and its 
political management, but seems, like Livingstone 
and Cameron, to be particularly struck with its 
market. This is held every fourth day, and from 
one to three thousand people assemble to trade ; 
most of the vendors are women, and the animated 



n 5 a IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

manner in which trade is carried on amused Liv- 
ingstone exceedingly. Though he could not un- 
derstand their language he could interpret their 
gestures, which were very expressive. This pleas- 
ant scene, however, was marred one day by a 
messenger stalking into the market with ten jaw- 
bones of men tied to a string and hanging over 
his shoulder, he boasting of having killed and 
eaten these men and describing with his knife how 
he cut them up. 

Early in the morning of the market-day the 
river, as far as its course can be seen, presents a 
lively appearance. It is covered with canoes 
loaded to their gunwales with natives and articles 
for the market piled on each other, and they all 
press toward one point. Amid the laughter and 
jargon of the natives, may be heard the crowing 
of cocks, and squealing of pigs and the bleating 
of goats. Having reached the landing-place, the 
men quietly shoulder their paddles and walk up 
the bank, leaving the women to carry the articles 
up to the market-place. These are placed in 
large baskets and slung on their backs by a strap 
across their foreheads. When this great crowd of 
two or three thousand are assembled the babel 
begins. But the talking and chaffering are done 
by the women; the men move about paying but 
little attention to the bartering, unless something 
important, as the sale of a slave, is going on. 
The women do not walk about, but having selected 



AFRICAN- MARKETS. 



.65 



a spot where they propose to do business, they 
let down the basket, and spreading the articles on 
the ground so as to appear to the best advantage, 
they squat themselves in the basket, where they 
look like some huo-e shell-fish. 

The vendors being thus stationary, the buyers 
also become so, and hence it is always a close, 
jammed mass of human beings, screaming, sweat- 
ing and sending forth no pleasant odor, for three 
or four hours. They do not break up gradually, 
but on the movement of some important person a 
general scramble will commence, and in twenty 
minutes the whole two thousand or more will be 
scattered in every direction. The markets of this 
region are held on neutral ground by the various 
tribes, and their feuds are laid aside for that day. 
Except at Nyangwe, uninhabited spots are se- 
lected. The neighboring chiefs are always pres- 
ent, and can be seen lounging lazily about. Stan- 
ley counted fifty-seven different articles for sale, 
ranging from sweet potatoes to beautiful girls, 
while the currency was shells, beads, copper and 
brass wire and palm cloth. 

There are two foreign chiefs at the place, who 
are very jealous of each other, as each wished to 
be regarded by the natives as the most powerful. 
Sheikh Abed, a tall, thin old man with a white 
beard, occupies the southern section of the town, 
and Muini Dugumbi the other. It has not lonof 
been an Arab trading post, for Dugumbi is the 



^ 6( 3 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

first Arab that came here, and that was no later 
that 1868, and pitched his quarters, and now the 
huts of his friends, with their families and slaves, 
number some three hundred. He is an Arab 
trader from the east coast, and soon after his ar- 
rival he established a harem, composed of more 
than three hundred slave women. Though a rol- 
licking, joking man himself, his followers are a 
reckless, freebooting set. The original inhabitants 
of Nyangwe were driven out by Muini Dugumbi, 
and now occupy portions of both sides of the 
river, and live by fishing, and are said to be a 
singular tribe. Stanley estimated there must 
have been forty-two thousand of them in the region 
previous to the coming of this Arab chief, who 
spread desolation on every side. There remain 
to-day only twenty thousand of this people. 

Stanley remained here only about a week, for 
Tipo-tipo arriving on the 2d of November, he 
prepared to start on his unknown journey. The 
expedition, when he mustered it on the morning 
of the 4th, numbered one hundred and seventy- 
six, armed with sixty-three muskets and rifles, two 
double-barreled guns and ten revolvers. Besides 
these, there were sixty-eight axes, that Stanley, 
with great forethought, purchased, thinking the 
time micrht come when he would need them as 
much as his guns. Tipo-tipo brought with him 
seven hundred followers, though only four hundred 
were to accompany the expedition the sixty 



TIPO-TIPaS ARMY. 



367 



marches. Together, they made quite a little army, 
but many of them were women and children, who 
always accompany the Arabs in their marches or 
forays; still, the force, all drawn up, presented an 
imposing display. A hundred of these were 
armed with flint-lock muskets, the rest with spears 
and shields. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

{ THROUGH THE FORESTS. 

ON the 5th of November, Stanley, at the 
head of his motley array, turned his back 
on Nyangwe and his face to the wilder- 
ness. It was an eventful morning for him. Eight- 
een hundred miles of an unknown country stretched 
before him, wrapped in profound mystery, peopled 
with races of which the outside world had never, 
heard, and filled with dangers that would appall 
the bravest heart. He felt, as he turned and gave 
a last look at Nyangwe, that the die was cast — his 
fate for good or ill was sealed. What sad misgiv- 
ings must at times have made a feeling G f faint- 
ness creep over his heart — what terrible responsi- 
bilities must have crowded upon him ; aye, what 
gloomy forebodings, in spite of his courage, would 
weigh down his "spirit. If he had used canoes, the 
starting would have been more cheerful, but the 
dense and tangled forest, whose dark line could 
be traced against the sky, wore a forbidding aspect. . 
They marched but nine miles the first day, and 
though the country was open, the manner in which 
the men bore it did not promise well for their en- 
durance when they should enter the jungle. Every 
pound was carried on men's shoulders, besides 

(368) 



THE START. 



\6g 



their weapons, all the provisions, stores of cloth, 
and beads, and wire, the arms and ammunition, of 
which there had to be a large quantity, for they 
might be two years fighting their way across the 
continent, and in addition to these burdens, the 
boat in sections. The next morning, Tipo-tipo's 
heterogeneous crowd started first, which impeded 
the march by frequent halts, for the women 
and children had to be cared for. They soon en- 
tered the gloomy forest of Mitamba, where the 
marching became more difficult, and the halts more 
frequent, while the dew fell from the trees in great 
rain-drops, wetting the narrow path they were fol- 
lowing, till the soil became a thick mud. The 
heavy foliage shut out the sky, and the disordered 
caravan marched on in gloomy twilight, and at 
last, drenched to the skin, reached a village four 
miles from camp and waited for the carriers of 
the boat to arrive. These found the boat a heavy 
burden, for the foliage grew so thick and low over 
the path, that the sections had to be pushed by 
sheer force through it. To make the camp even 
more gloomy, one of the Arab chiefs who had been 
in the forest before, said, with great complacency, 
that what they had endured was nothing to that 
which was before them. The next day the path 
was so overgrown and obstructed by fallen trees, 
that axemen had to go before the carriers of the 
boat to clear the way for them. On the ioth, hav- 
ing reached Uregga, a village in the very heart 
24 



- y Q IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

of the forest, they halted for a rest. Its isolated 
inhabitants seemed to be in advance of those whom 
Stanley had seen elsewhere. The houses were 
built in blocks, which were square like those of 
Manyema,and they contained various fancy articles, 
some of them displaying great taste. Here Stan- 
ley saw curiously carved bits of wood, and hand- 
some spoons, and for the first time in Africa, he 
beheld a cane settee. 

The men carrying the boat did not come up for 
two days, and then quite broken and disheartened. 
Indeed, here almost at the very outset, everything 
seemed to point to an early dissolution of the ex- 
pedition. Not only were his men discontented, 
but Tipo-tipo, with all his elegance of manner and 
pompous pretence, began to glower and grumble, 
not merely at the hardships his people were com- 
pelled to encounter, but because sickness had 
broken out in his camp. 

On the 13th, three hundred out of the seven 
hundred of his men branched off from the expe- 
dition. The marching now became not only 
monotonous but extremely painful, and so slow 
that it took a whole day's march to make a dis- 
tance of nine miles— a rate of progress that Stan- 
ley saw very clearly would never bring him to the 
Atlantic Ocean. They had now been seven days 
on the march and had made but about forty miles, 
and scarcely one mile west. Thus far their course 
had been almost due north toward the great desert 



DISCOURAGING PROGRESS. --j 

of Sahara, and not toward the Atlantic Ocean. 
These five days had been utterly thrown away, so 
far as progress in the right direction was concerned; 
not an inch had been gained, and the whole expe- 
dition was discouraged. The carriers of the boat 
begged Stanley to throw it away or go back to 
Nyangwe, while the Arab chiefs made no attempt 
to conceal their discontent, but openly expressed 
their disinclination to proceed any farther. Even 
the splendid barbarian dandy, Tipo-tipo, who prided 
himself on his superiority to all other Arabs, began 
to look moody, while increasing sickness in the 
camp cast additional gloom over it. Huge ser- 
pents crossed their path, while all sorts of wild 
beasts and vermin peopled the dense forest and 
swarmed around them. 

On the 1 5 th, they made but six miles and a half 
and yet, short as was the distance, it took the men 
carrying the boat twenty-four hours to make it, 
and all were so weary that a halt of an entire day 
was ordered to let them rest. In addition to this, 
the forest became ten times more matted than be- 
fore. Both the heavier timber and the under- 
growth grew thicker and thicker, shutting out not 
only the light of the sun, but every particle of 
moving air, so that the atmosphere became suffo- 
cating and stifling. Panting for breath, the little 
army crawled and wormed itself through the inter- 
lacing branches, and when night came down were 
utterly disheartened. Even the elegant Tipo-tipo 



oy 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

now gave out, and came to Stanley to be released 
from his en^a^ement. It was in vain that the 
latter appealed to his honor, his pride and fear of 
ridicule should he now turn back to Nyangwe. 
But to everything he could urge, the very sensible 
answer was returned : " If there is nothing worse 
than this before us, it will yet take us, at the rate 
we are going, a year to make the sixty marches 
and as long a time to return. You are only killing 
everybody by your obstinacy ; such a country was 
never made for decent men to travel in, it was 
made for pagans and monkeys." 

It is in circumstances like these that those quali- 
ties which have made Stanley the most successful 
explorer of modern times, exhibit themselves. Na- 
poleon said, when speaking of troops, " Even 
brave soldiers have their i moment de >■ peur •,"' the 
time when they shrink. But this man seems an 
exception to this rule. To him the moment of 
fear never seems to come, for he never feels the 
contagion of example. He adheres to his reso- 
lution to go on, if but a handful stand by him. He 
seems impervious to the contagion that seizes 
others, and a panic in battle would sweep by him 
unmoved. After talking to Tipo-tipo for two 
hours, he finally got him to agree to accompany 
him twenty marches farther. 

There were two things in this village, shut up in 
the heart of the forest, that impressed Stanley very 
much. He found here a primitive forge, in which 



WONDERS OF THE FOREST. 



373 



the natives smelted iron-ore, found in the neigh- 
borhood, and a smithy, in which the iron was 
worked up into instruments of all kinds, from a 
small knife to a cleaver ; hatchets, hammers, even 
wire and ornaments for the arms and legs were 
made. How this rude people, to whom even an 
Arab trader had never come, should have dis- 
covered the properties of iron-ore, how to disen- 
gage the iron and then work it into every variety 
of instruments, is inexplicable. The whole must 
have been the product of the brain of some native 
genius. 

The other remarkable thing was a double row 
of skulls, running the entire length of the village, 
set in the ground, leaving the naked, round top 
glistening in the sun. There were nearly two 
hundred of them. Amazed, he asked his Arabs 
what they were, they replied "soko skulls." The 
soko, Cameron calls a gorilla, and we have no 
doubt many of the remarkable stories about go- 
rillas refer to this monkey. But Livingstone 
says it is an animal resembling the gorilla, and 
his account of their habits shows they are not the 
fierce, fearless gorilla that is afraid of neither man 
nor beast. . The soko is about four feet ten inches 
in height, and often walks erect, with his hands 
resting on his head as if to steady himself. With 
a yellow face adorned with ugly whiskers, a low 
forehead and high ears, he looks as if he might 
be a hideous cross between a man and a beast. 



~j* IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 

His teeth, though dog-like in their size, still slightly 
resemble those found in the human head. The 
fingers are almost exactly like the natives. He 
is cunning and crafty, and will often stalk a man 
or woman as stealthily as a hunter will a deer. 
He seldom does much damage, unless driven to 
bay, when he fights fiercely. He takes great 
pleasure in nabbing children and carrying them 
up into a tree and holding them in his arms, but 
if a bunch of bananas is thrown on the ground he 
will descend, and leaving the child, will seize it. 
He seldom uses his teeth, but in conflict with a 
man he has been known to bite off his opponent's 
fingers and then let him go. They are hunted 
and trapped by the natives for their flesh, which 
is regarded as very good eating. 

Stanley, not satisfied with the answer of his 
men concerning the skulls, sent for the chief and 
asked him whose they were. He said of the 
sokos, which they hunt because of the destruc- 
tion they make of the bananas, and that their 
meat was good. Stanley offered him a hundred 
cowries if he would brino- one to him alive or 
dead. The chief went into the woods to hunt 
them, but at evening returned without success. 
He, however, gave him a portion of what he af- 
firmed to be the skin of one. Stanley had the 
curiosity to take two of these skulls home with 
him, and gave them to Professor Huxley to ex- 
amine, who reported they were the skulls of a 



SOA'O SKULLS. 



377 



man and a woman. Stanley, therefore, came 
to the conclusion that they were the skulls of 
men and women who had been eaten by these 
cannibals. But we do not believe this conclusion 
fairly justifiable, from Professor Huxley's report 
on two skulls. In the first place, the Arabs would 
scarcely have made such a mistake as this implies — 
they had seen too many soko skulls. In the second 
place, the chief corroborated their statement, and 
he had no reason for telling a falsehood. If those 
skulls were placed thus prominently in the streets, 
it was to boast of them, not to lie about them. It 
is far more likely that there were a few human 
skulls mixed in with the sokos, and that when 
Stanley asked for a couple, the largest and best- 
shaped were selected for him which proved to be- 
long to human beings. His hunting for one was 
certainly not to prove he had told Stanley a false- 
hood. The same peculiarity was noticed here 
that Baker mentions of the natives of Fatiko — 
the women go naked, while the men are partly 
covered with skins. The whole apparel of the 
women is an apron four inches square. 

On the 19th of March, they reached the Lualaba, 
sweeping majestically through the silent forest. 
Stanley immediately determined there should be 
no more tangled forests for him, but that the broad 
current of the river should bear him to the At- 
lantic Ocean or to death. The camp was pre- 
pared and the breakfast eaten, while Pocoke was 



73 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



getting the Lady Alice screwed together. Soon 
she was launched on the stream, amid the huzzas 
of the party. Although the river here was 
nearly three-quarters of a mile wide, and the op- 
posite shore appeared like an uninhabited forest, 
yet sharp eyes detected the wonderful apparition 
that had appeared on the farther shore, and the 
news spread so rapidly, that when Stanley in the 
Lady Alice approached it, he saw the woods alive 
with human beings, and several canoes tied to the 
shore. He hailed them, and tried to make a bar- 
gain with them to transport his party across. 
They refused point-blank, but afterwards seemed 
to relent and offered to exchange blood-brother- 
hood with them, and appointed a place on a neigh- 
boring island where the ceremony should be 
performed. It was, however, discovered that it 
was a treacherous plot to murder them, and but 
for precautions taken in view of its possibility, 
there would have been a nVht. 

Stanley now determined to cross his men by 
detachments in his own boat. He took over thirty 
above the village and told the natives that they 
had better assist him in carrying over the rest, for 
which he promised they should be well paid. They 
finally consented, and the whole expedition was 
soon landed safely on the left bank of the river. 



H 



CHAPTER XXII. 

FLOATING DOWN THE CONGO. 

AVING been ferried across the river by 
the natives, Stanley felt quite secure of 
the friendship of this first tribe he had 
met on the banks of the Lualaba. But here he 
resolved to change its name to Livingstone, which 
ever after he continues to call it. Villages lined 
the banks, all, he says, adorned with skulls of hu- 
man beings. But instead of finding the inhabit- 
ants of them friendly, there were none to be seen ; 
all had mysteriously disappeared, whether from 
fright or to arouse the tribes below, it was impos- 
sible to determine ; it seemed from the former, 
for notwithstanding they had overcome their first 
fear so much as to ferry the expedition across the 
river, they had not taken away their canoes, nor 
carried with them their provisions. Leaving these 
untouched, as a sort of promise to the tribes below 
that their property should be held sacred, the ex- 
pedition took up its march down the river. Stan- 
ley, with thirty-three men, went by water, in the 
Lady Alice, while Tipo-tipo and young Pocoke 
with the rest of the party marched along the bank. 
Village after village was passed; the natives ut- 
tering their wild war-cry, and then disappearing 

(379) 



3 8o 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



in the forest, leaving everything- behind them. 
Whether it was a peaceful village, or a crowded 
market-place they passed, they inspired the same 
terror, and huts and market-places were alike de- 
serted. This did not promise well for the future. 

In the middle of the afternoon, Stanley, in the 
Lady Alice, came to a river one hundred yards 
wide. Knowing that the land party could not 
cross this without a boat, he halted to wait for its 
approach in order to ferry it over, and built a 
strong camp. This was on November 23d, 1876. 
At sunset it had not arrived, and he became anx- 
ious. Next morning it did not make its appear- 
ance, and still more anxious, he ascended this 
river, named the Ruigi, several miles, to see if 
they had struck it farther up. 

Returning, in the afternoon without hearing any- 
thing of the expedition, he was startled as he ap- 
proached the camp, by the rapid firing of guns. 
Alarmed, he told the rowers to bend to their oars, 
and sweeping rapidly downward, he soon came to 
the mouth of the stream and found it blocked 
with canoes filled with natives. Dashing down 
upon them with loud shouts, they fled in every di- 
rection. One dead man floating in the stream 
was the only result of the first fight on the Liv- 



ingstone. 



The day wore away and night came down, and 
silence and solitude rested on the forest stretch- 
ing along the banks of the Ruigi, where he anx- 



TERRIBLE SUSPENSE. 



381 



iously waited to hear musket-shots announcing 
the arrival of the land party. It was a long and 
painful night, for one of two things was certain; 
Tipo-tipo and Pocoke had lost their way or had 
been attacked and overpowered. The bright 
tropical sun rose over the forest east of the river 
Ruigi, but its banks were silent and still. Stanley 
could not endure the suspense any longer, and 
dispatched Uledi, with five of the boat's crew, to 
seek the wanderers. This Uledi, hereafter to the 
close of the march, becomes a prominent figure. 
Stanley had made him coxswain of the boat Lady 
Alice, and he had proved to be one of the most 
trustworthy men of the expedition, and was to 
show himself in its future desperate fortunes, one 
of the most cool and daring, worthy, only half- 
civilized as he was, to stand beside Stanley. The 
latter gave him strict directions as to his conduct 
in hunting up the fugitives — especially respecting 
the villages he mipfht come across. Uledi told 
Stanley not to be anxious — he would soon find 
the lost party. 

Stanley, of course, could do nothing but wait, 
though filled with the most anxious thoughts. 
The river swept by calmly as ever, unconscious 
of the troubled hearts on its banks ; the great forest 
stood silent and still in the tropical sun, and the 
day wore away as it ever does, thoughtless of the 
destinies its hours are settling, and indifferent to 
the human suffering that crowds them. But at 



382 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

four o'clock a musket-shot rang out of the woods, 
and soon Uledi appeared leading the lost party. 
They had gone astray and been attacked by the 
natives, who killed three of their number. Luckily 
they captured a prisoner, whom they forced to act 
as a guide to conduct them back to the river, and, 
after marching all day, met Uledi in search of them. 
They were ferried across and allowed to scatter 
abroad in search of food, which they took where- 
ever found, without any regard to the rights of the 
natives. Necessity had compelled Stanley to re- 
lax his strict rules in this respect. 

The next day the march was continued as before, 
communication being kept up by those on the land 
and on the water by drum-taps. The villages they 
passed were deserted — every soul fleeing at their 
approach. Proceeding down the river, they came 
across six abandoned canoes more or less injured. 
Repairing these, they lashed them together as a 
floating hospital for the sick of the land party, the 
number of which had greatly increased from the 
exposures and hardships they were compelled to 
undergo. In the afternoon they came upon the 
first rapids they had met. Some boats, attempting 
their descent, were upset and attacked by the 
natives, who were, however, soon beaten off. Four 
Snider rifles were lost, which brought down on 
Pocoke, who had permitted the Arabs to run this 
risk, a severe rebuke, and a still severer one on 
the Arab chief, who had asked the former to let 



DRIFTING DOWNWARD. 



383 



him make the attempt. The chief, enraged at the 
reproaches heaped upon him, went to Tipo-tipo, 
and declared that he would not serve Stanley any 
longer. This, together with the increased hostility 
of the natives, the alarming sickness, and the dan- 
gerous rapids, brought the head chief to Stanley 
with a solemn appeal to turn back before it was 
too late. But the latter had reached a point where 
nothing but absolute fate could turn him back. 

The rapids were passed in safety by the canoe 
— the Lady Alice being carried around them on 
men's shoulders. Natives were occasionally met, 
but no open hostility was shown for several days. 
The river "would now be contracted by the bold 
shores, and rush foaming along and now spread 
into lake-like beauty, dotted with green islands, 
the quiet abodes of tropical birds and monkeys, 
which filled the air with a jargon of sounds. 

On the 4th of December they came to a long, 
straggling town, composed of huts only seven feet 
long by five wide, standing apart, yet connected 
by roofs, the intervening spaces covered and com- 
mon to the inhabitants of both the adjacent huts. 
It was, however, deserted, like the rest. This per- 
sistent desertion was almost as dispiriting as open 
hostility, and an evil fate seemed to hang over the 
expedition. The sickness kept increasing, and 
day after day all that broke the monotony of the 
weary hours was the tossing over now and then 
of dead bodies into the river, The land party pre- 



-g^ IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

sented a heart-broken appearance as they crawled, 
at night, laden with the sick and dying, into camp. 
At this place Stanley found an old, battered, aban- 
doned canoe, capable of carrying sixty people. 
This he repaired, and added it to his floating hos- 
pital. 

On the 8th of December he came to another 
large town, the inhabitants of which, in spite of all 
attempts to make peace, were determined to fight 
With fourteen canoes they approached the bank 
on which the land party were encamped, and com- 
menced shooting their arrows. This lasted for 
some time, when Stanley took the Lady Alice and 
dashed among them, pouring in at the same time 
such a close and deadly fire that they turned and 
fled. 

The story of the slow drifting and marching of 
the expedition down the Livingstone is a very 
monotonous one to read, but was full of the deep- 
est interest to the travelers, for the forest on either 
side of the great river seemed filled with horns and 
war-drums, while out from a creek or from behind 
an island canoes would dart and threaten an attack. 
Floating peacefully through those primeval forests 
on this stately river, bearing them ever on to the un- 
known, would make the heart heave with emotion, 
but when danger and death were ever present, the 
intensest feelings were aroused. 

At length they came to a series of villages lining 
the bank and surrounded with plenty. There was 



A STRATAGEM. 



385 



a large population, and the natives, at the approach 
of Stanley, blew their ivory horns and beat their 
drums, and soon a whole fleet of canoes, heavily 
manned, attacked the little party in the boat. By 
a bold dash Stanley was able to seize and occupy 
the lower village, where he quickly intrenched him- 
self. The savages came down in immense num- 
bers, filling the air with hideous shouts and rushed 
on the slender defenses with desperate fury. It 
was astonishing to see these men, to whom fire- 
arms were new, show so little fear of them. They 
were the boldest fighters Stanley had as yet en- 
countered in Africa, and though he punished them 
severely they kept up the attack, with short inter- 
vals between, for nearly two days. At last the ap- 
pearance of Tipo-tipo alongthe bank with the land 
forces made them beat a retreat, which they did 
with a tremendous noise of horns and loud threats 
of vengeance. Out of the few with Stanley, four 
were killed and thirteen wounded, or seventeen 
out of forty — nearly half of the whole force. This 
showed desperate fighting, and as the enemy ad- 
vanced by hundreds their loss must have been 
fearful. 

Stanley, who was equal in stratagem to an 
American Indian, played them a trick that night 
which took all their bravado out of them. Wait- 
ing till he thought they were asleep, he took the 
Lady Alice, and Frank Pocoke a canoe, and both 
with muffled oars, rowed up the river to find their 
25 



3 86 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



camp. It was a rainy, dark and windy night, and, 
hence, favorable to the enterprise be had in hand, 
and his movements were undiscovered. By the 
light of a fire on the bank he ascertained the loca- 
tion of the camp, and advancing cautiously saw 
some forty canoes drawn up on shore. Bidding 
Frank go down stream and lie to, to catch them 
as they floated down, he quietly cut them all adrift. 
They were caught by the former, and by midnight 
were at Stanley's camp. He knew that he now 
had them in his power, and so in the morning pro- 
ceeded to their camp and made offers of peace, 
which they were glad to accept on the condition 
that their canoes were returned to them. This 
was agreed to and blood-brotherhood made. Stan- 
ley, however, whose great need had been canoes, 
determined not to let all these slip through his 
hands, and retained twenty-three, giving back only 
fifteen. 

Tipo-tipo now told Stanley that he would pro- 
ceed no further, his people were dying rapidly, the 
difficulties of marching were increasing and he 
must return. The latter saw he was determined to 
go, although eight marches remained to be made, 
and released him. In truth, now he had boats 
enough to carry his entire expedition, Tipo-tipo, 
cumbered with the sick, would be a burden rather 
than a help, and at the rate they were moving, 
eight marches, more or less, would not amount to 
much. Besides, marching by land, Stanley saw 



DEPARTURE OF TIP O- TIP O. 



387 



must be given up or they would never get to the 
sea. Thus far they had scarcely made any west- 
ing at all, having gone almost due north, and 
were nearly as far from the Atlantic Ocean as 
when they left Nyangwe. The only thing he 
feared was the effect the departure of the escort 
would have on his men. In announcing to them 
that on the sixth day they should start down the 
river, he made them quite a speech, in which he 
asked them if he had not always taken good care 
of them and fulfilled all his promises, and said 
that if they would trust him implicitly he would 
surely bring them out to the ocean and see them 
safe back to Zanzibar. "As a father looks after 
his children," he said, "so will I look after you." 
A shout orreeted him at the close. One of his 
chiefs followed in an address to the Arabs, while 
Uledi, the coxswain, spoke for the boatmen in a 
very satisfactory strain. 

Preparations for starting were now set on foot, 
canoes were mended, provisions gathered and 
everything that could be thought of provided 
against future contingencies. Christmas day came, 
and the poor fugitives had quite a frolic there in 
the wilderness. The twenty-three boats they had 
captured were christened by the men, amid much 
merriment, and then canoe races followed, rowed 
by both men and women; all wound up with a 
wild war-dance on the banks of the river. 

The next day Tipo-tipo gave a grand dinner. 



388 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



The day after, the camps separated, and all inter- 
course between them ceased. 

On the morning of the 28th, Stanley embarked 
his men to the sound of drum and trumpet, and 
Tipo-tipo hearing it in his camp, knew that the 
parting hour had come, and paraded his men on 
the bank. As the expedition slowly floated down 
the stream toward it, there was heard a deep, 
plaintive chant from the Arabs on the bank, as a 
hundred melodious voices arose in a farewell sone; 
out from the dim forest, and over the rippling 
water it floated, in sweet melancholy strains, that 
touched every heart in that slowly-moving fleet of 
canoes. Louder and louder swelled the chant, 
increasing in volume and pathos, as the wanderers 
drew nearer. As they approached the Arab camp 
they saw the singers ranged in a row along the 
bank. Passing slowly by them, they waved a silent 
adieu, for their hearts were too full to speak. On 
they floated, and still the chant went on, until, 
at last, it died away in the distance, and sadness 
and silence rested on the stream. No one spoke 
a word, and Stanley cast his own eyes, not wholly 
dry, over the crowded boats, and was moved with 
the deepest pity. Nearly all were sitting with 
their faces hidden in their hands and sobbing. 
Those they were leaving behind were about to re- 
turn to their homes — they to enter new dangers, 
out of which they might never emerge. No 
wonder they were sad, and it is singular that not 



A MOURNFUL SCENE. 



;8 9 



a man, even of those who had before deserted, 
asked permission to go back. It was a mournful 
scene there in the wilds of Africa, and on that 
mysterious river, and Stanley said it was the sad- 
dest day in his whole life. 

The casting of their fortunes in this desperate 
venture of his, shows what wonderful influence he 
had acquired over them, and with what devotion 
he had inspired them. No wonder his heart clung 
to them to the last, and he would never leave 
them, until he saw them safe again in their homes. 
In order to rouse the men, he shouted, "Sons of 
Zanzibar, lift up your heads and be men. What 
is there to fear? Here we are all together, like 
one family, with hearts united, all strong with the 
purpose to reach our home. See this river, it is 
the road to Zanzibar. When saw you a road so 
wide? Strike your paddles deep, and cry out 
' Bismillah,' and let us forward." No shout greeted 
this appeal, as with sickly smiles they paddled 
downward. Uledi tried to sing ; but it was such a 
miserable failure that his sad companions could 
not restrain a smile. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



DESCENT OF THE CONGO. 



STANLEY was now like Cortez when he 
burned his ships behind him — there was no 
returning — one and all must move on to- 
gether to a common fate. All danger of deser- 
tion, for the present, was over, and he felt that the 
consciousness of there being no possible escape, 
and that one destiny awaited them all, not only 
bound them closer together, but would make them 
better fighters. 

At first, on their downward march, they met a 
peaceful tribe, and then a hostile one which would 
listen to no terms, and whose reply to every re- 
quest for peace was, " We don't want you ; we will 
eat you." They, however, passed by unmolested, 
and swept down the river, astonished to see its banks 
so thickly populated. That night they encamped 
in a dense jungle, which was found to be the 
home of the hippopotamus in the dry season. 
Tipo-tipo had left with Stanley two cannibals that 
he had captured, to be used by him in conciliat- 
ing the savages, as they knew their language. 
These tried their arts this night on the natives on 
the farther bank, who, no sooner espied the 
strangers, than they beat their drums and ad- 

(39o) 



BESE T BY CANNIBALS. - g x 

vanced to attack them. The cannibals talked so 
eloquently and plausibly to them, that the savages 
withdrew and left them in peace. The next 
morning they came to the mouth of a large river 
named Lowwa, one thousand yards wide, and 
seemingly quite deep. 

On the last day of the year, they were moving 
quietly down stream — the heavens bright above 
them and the banks £reen beside them — when 
they suddenly heard the hated war-drum sound; 
and soon the canoes of the natives shot out from 
both shores, and for a moment a collision seemed 
inevitable; but the two cannibals shouted Sennen- 
neh! " peace," so plaintively, that they desisted 
and the little fleet passed on unmolested. But 
the next day they met other boats which advanced ; 
their crews shouting "we will eat you," but they 
were easily driven off. It produced a novel sen- 
sation in Stanley to be hailed every day and 
ordered to give himself up for a good roast. At 
length they came to a peaceful tribe, from whom 
they obtained provisions. 

Gathering such information as they could from 
the natives, they now continued on very quietly, 
when they were suddenly attacked by savages in 
canoes of immense size. One, eighty-five feet 
long, singled out the Lady Alice and made for it. 
The crew of the latter waited till it came within 
fifty feet, and then, pouring in a deadly volley, 
made a dash to run it down. The frightened 



392 



IX THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



crew, just before the collision, jumped overboard, 
leaving the big boat in the hands of Stanley. 

Keeping on, after this little fight, they passed 
small tributaries, and at length heard the roar of 
a cataract below. But while they were listening 
to the unwelcome sound, there suddenly rose over 
it the wild, shrill war-cries of the savages from 
both sides of the river. There was no escape for 
the expedition now — they must turn and fight. 
Dropping their stone anchors near the bank, they 
poured in their volleys, but, not being able to dis- 
lodge this new foe, they pulled up their anchors 
and rowed up stream where Stanley divided his 
forces, and while one attracted the attention of the 
enemy in front, the other landed, and marching 
across the land, took them in the rear. As soon 
as Stanley heard the first shot announcing its ar- 
rival, he landed and attacked the enemy in front 
and routed them, and camped for the night un- 
disturbed. 

Next morning, however, the natives appeared 
again in strong numbers and attacked the camp. 
The fight was kept up for two hours, when a sally 
was ordered, and they charged on tho enemy, 
who, though giving way, kept up the fight for four 
or five hours more. Two of Stanley's men were 
killed and ten wounded. The former were thrown 
into the river, for Stanley had determined to bury 
no more men till out of the cannibal country. 
This defeat of the natives gave the expedition a 



BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. ^ n7 

few days' rest, so that this first of the series of 
"Stanley falls," as they were named, could be 
thoroughly explored, not only for geographical 
purposes, but to ascertain the best way of getting 
around them. He found that the falls could not 
be run, and that a carry around them some two 
miles long must be made. A path was cleared 
with axes, and boat and canoes were taken from 
the water and carried with great labor, yet safely, 
overland, and launched once more on the stream 
without accident,. and anchored in a creek near 
its entrance into the main river. Not wishing to 
remain here, the order to advance was given, and 
soon they were again afloat on the great river. 
Sweeping downward they heard the roar of another 
cataract, and, although the war-horns were resound- 
ing on every side, they encamped on an island in 
the middle of the river. The hostile natives on 
the island, filled with terror, escaped to the main- 
land. In the morning Stanley explored the island, 
and found it contained five villages, all now de- 
serted, and in them was such a variety of imple- 
ments as showed that the inhabitants were adepts 
in the manufacture of all kinds of iron tools. 

The river was full of islands, winding among 
which, day after day, Stanley often found to be the 
only means of escape from the pertinacious canni- 
bals. These islands presented a beautiful appear- 
ance with their luxuriant foliage, but while the eye 
was resting on loveliness, the ear would be saluted 



394 



IN 7 HE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



with the sound of war-drums and hideous shouts. 
Whenever Stanley landed and visited a village 
from which the inhabitants had fled, he would see 
human bones scattered around, flung aside like 
oyster-shells, after the meat was removed, and at 
times the whole expedition felt as if they were des- 
tined to make a grand luncheon for these ferocious 
man-eaters. 

The next day Stanley began to make prepara- 
tions to get around the falls. The first thing was 
to clear himself of the savages ■ that crowded the 
left bank and were ready to pounce on him any 
moment. So taking thirty-six men he led them 
through the bushes and drove the natives back to 
their villages, a mile distant, and after a desperate 
struggle he drove them out of these. He next 
cut a narrow path, three miles long, around the 
cataract. This was slow work, and as haste was 
imperative the men were kept at work all night, 
flaming torches lighting up the way and making 
the gloomy shadows of the strange forest deeper 
still. Camps were distributed at short intervals 
along* the route, and to the first of these the canoes 
were carried before daylight. The savages made 
a rush on them but were driven back. At night 
another stretch of path was made, to which the 
canoes and baggage were hurried before the can- 
nibals were astir in the morning. There was less 
hostility and the work went steadily on, and at last, 
after seventy-eight hours of unceasing labor and 



ZAIDI IN PERIL. 



397 



almost constant fighting the river was again reached 
and the boats launched. 

This was accomplished on January 14th, but 
though the river had been reached, new perils 
awaited them. There was a stretch of two miles 
of rapids that must be passed. After six canoes 
had been passed safely, one was upset, and one 
of those in it, Zaidi, instead of swimming ashore, 
as the others did, clung to it and was borne help- 
lessly down to the cataract below. But on the 
very verge was a solitary rock on which the boat 
drifted and split — one part jamming fast. To 
this the poor wretch clung with the strength of 
despair, while all around leaped and whirled and 
roared the boiling water. Those on shore shrieked 
in agony, and Stanley was hastily sent for. He 
immediately set to work making a rattan rope, in 
order to let down a boat to him by which he could 
be pulled ashore. But the rope was not strong 
enough, and snapped asunder as soon as the boat 
reached the heavy suck of water just above the 
falls, and it was whirled into the vortex below. 
Other and stronger ropes were then made and 
another canoe brought up and three ropes lashed 
to it. A couple of men would be needed to pad- 
dle and steer the boat so that it could reach the 
unfortunate wretch on his perilous perch, and 
volunteers were called for. But one glance at 
the wild and angry waves was enough, and no one 
responded. Stanley then appealed to their feel- 



398 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



ings, when the brave Uledi stepped forward and 
said "I will go." Others of the crew followed, 
but only one was needed. The two stepped calmly 
into the boat and pushed off — watched with intense 
anxiety by those on shore. Reaching a certain 
distance above the falls, it drifted rapidly down 
toward them, guided by those holding two of the 
cables on shore. The third floated from the stern 
of the boat for the poor wretch on the rock to 
seize. Attempt after attempt was made to get 
this within Zaidi's reach, but the whirling waters 
flung it about like a whip-lash. At length the 
boat was lowered so close to the brink of the falls 
that he was able to reach it, but no sooner had he 
seized it and flung himself loose, than he was 
borne over the edge and disappeared below. 
But he held on to the rope and soon his head 
appeared above the boiling waves, when the word 
was given to haul away. The strain, however, 
was too great, and the cables parted and away 
dashed the canoe toward certain destruction, and 
a cry of horror arose from those on shore, for all 
three now seemed inevitably lost. But Zaidi 
below, by hanging on to the rope, pulled the boat 
against the rock where it lay wedged. He was 
then pulled up, and the three crouched together 
on the rock. A stone was now tied to about 
three hundred feet of whip-cord and flung to 
them, but they failed to catch it. Again and 
again was it thrown only to be pulled in and 



STANLE Y AS A STRA TEG IS T. ■? gg 

recast, but at last it whirled so close to them that 
they caught it. A heavy rope of rattan was then 
tied to it and drawn across and fastened, and a 
bridge thus secured. 

But this had taken so much time that night 
came on before the work could be finished; the 
three wretched men were left therefore, to crouch 
on the rock, and wait for the morning. All night 
long they held on to their wild perch, while the 
water rushed, and boiled, and roared around them, 
and the deep thunder of the cataract rose in one 
deep monotone over all, so that they could not 
hear each other speak. 

The next morning, early, the Arabs were set to 
work making more ropes, which were finally 
hauled across, and fastened round the waist of 
each man, and then, one by one, they leaped into 
the water and were drawn safely ashore, amid 
the joyous shouts of the people. 

They now set to work cutting a road three miles 
lonor through the woods. Over this the canoes 
were hauled with great labor before the savages 
on the farther side knew what was going on. But 
the moment the canoes were afloat, the foe dis- 
covered them, and rushing forward with their 
canoes the battle commenced. Stanley dashed 
through them, and sweeping down stream for a 
mile, landed on the island where the tribe lived, 
and quietly detaching twenty men, sent them to 
the villages, while he kept the savages at bay. 



4QO IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

In a short time, the detachment returned, bring- 
ing with them a crowd of women and children as 
prisoners, and a large herd of sheep. The sav- 
ages, when they saw these marching down to the 
landing-place, were taken so completely aback, 
that they stopped fighting at once, and withdrew 
to consult what was best to do in this extraordi- 
nary turn of affairs. They sat in their canoes, 
waiting to see their friends massacred. Negotia- 
tions for peace were soon opened and concluded, 
and the ceremony of blood-brotherhood was gone 
through with, the captives and herds were then 
surrendered up and friendly terms were estab- 
lished. 

The fifth cataract was at the foot of this island and 
was safely passed, and the expedition encamped on 
the bank of the river, on a green plat of ground, and 
slept undisturbed. In the morning, to their un- 
bounded surprise, they found themselves inclosed 
in a net of cord, reaching from the shore above the 
camp, to the shore below it, passing through the 
bushes. Stanley knew what this meant — that 
they were to be speared, when they approached it, 
like so many wild beasts. He at once ordered 
one of the chiefs, Manwa Sera, to take thirty men 
and row up the river a short distance and land, 
thence to march inland, and come up behind those 
lying in wait outside of the net. At the end of 
an hour he ordered men forward to cut the nets, 
when the firing commenced. The savages soon 



SEEKING MAN- MEAT. 



40I 



turned and fled, but to their astonishment, met the 
enemy advancing on them by the road leading 
from their villages, at which discovery they fled in 
every direction. Eight prisoners were, however, 
captured and brought into camp. On being 
questioned, they confessed that they were after 
man-meat and said that their tribe, which lived 
about a day's journey inland, ate old men and 
women and every stranger that fell into their 
hands. 

They now kept down the river for several miles 
unmolested, until they heard the sullen roar of 
the sixth cataract rising over the woods, when 
they camped on the right bank, near an island 
covered with villages. Stanley knew what was 
before him here, and ordered a stockade to be 
commenced immediately. But, before this was 
finished, the everlasting drum and horn pealed 
through the woods and soon the savages were 
upon them. After a short fight, they retreated, 
followed by Stanley's soldiers to a large village, 
but there were only three or four old women it it, 
who were brought into camp. In a short time a 
heavier force approached and made a furious at- 
tack, but it was quickly driven back and two 
wounded men were taken prisoners. A part of 
Stanley's force was all this time cutting a path 
around the cataract. The next morning they set to 
work with a will and by noon passed it safely. Stan- 
ley having wormed out of his* captives all the in- 
26 



a 02 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

formation he could of the surrounding country 
and the various tribes that inhabited it, set them 
free. Passing some rapids, they came to a village 
in which there was but a single old man, solitary 
and alone, who had been there for several days. 
The next day they halted to repair the boats. 
The persistent course of the river, till within the 
last few days to the north, and sometimes north- 
east, had troubled Stanley, and but for the im- 
mense volume of water that he knew had no 
eastern outlet, would have shaken his faith in its 
being the Congo. But, since he passed the last 
cataract he had noticed that it gradually deflected 
to the northwest, and now swept by almost due 
west, having evidently at last started on its journey 
for the sea. Long islands still divided the river, 
making, most of the time, two streams and shut- 
ting out the opposite hanks. Keeping down the 
right channel, they passed through enchanting 
scenery, undisturbed by war-drums and savage 
shouts. Though the water was smooth on their 
side, over the island, on the other, they could hear 
the roar of rapids, and a few miles farther down 
the loud roar of the seventh and last cataract of 
the "Stanley Falls" burst on their ears, filling the 
solitude with its loud thunder. The river here 
was over a mile wide, and the fall of such an im- 
mense body of water over a high ledge made the 
earth tremble. 

It was one incessant fight, either with the sav- 



BATTLING ONWARD. 



403 



aees or with nature, and it seemed as if fate de- 
termined to wear out these indomitable men. 
Soon the loud war-drums, and horns, and battle- 
shouts were mingled with the roar of the cataract, 
showing that here, too, they must fight before they 
could get below it. Dropping down as near as it 
was safe to the commencement of the rapids, they 
pulled ashore and pitched their camp in a dense 
forest. Fearful of being attacked before they 
could intrench, they immediately set to work with 
their axes to throw together a brushwood fence, 
while thirty soldiers were stationed in front toward 
the river, to repel assault. They had hardly com- 
pleted it before the naked cannibals were upon 
them with a fury that threatened to break through 
their defenses. All this time out from the woods, 
adown the gorge through which the river plunged, 
war-drums and horns were heard summoning the 
thickly-scattered villages to the scene of combat. 
Before the steady fire of the musketeers the sav- 
ages suffered so severely that at sunset they 
abandoned the attack and withdrew. Stanley now 
secured his boats and strengthened the brushwood 
fence, and laid his plans for the morning. 

The camp was roused at five o'clock, and they 
pushed on to a point nearer the falls, so that the 
work of carrying around them was completed be- 
fore the Wangas opened battle. Everything be- 
ing made secure, they waited for the expected 
attack to begin, but, no enemy appearing, Stanley 



404 IN THE WILDS 0F AFRICA. 

sent out scouts to ascertain what they were about 
They brought back word that no savages were to 
be seen. On advancing to the villages, Stanley 
found to his astonishment that they were all de- 
serted. Why, or whither they had fled was a 
profound mystery. Here was a town or cluster 
of villages, each with four or five streets running 
through it, and capable of containing two thous- 
and inhabitants, deserted in a single night. The 
silence of death reigned over it. 

Left thus at peace, he began to turn his atten. 
tion to the falls. He found the river here in this 
terrific gorge was contracted to less than one- 
third of its breadth a short distance above, and 
hence flowed with a power and strength that can 
hardly be conceived. Crowded together, the 
waters struggled and leaped, and tore onward 
with a wildness and fury like the Niagara River 
below the falls. He here found baskets tied to 
long poles set to catch fish. They emptied some 
of these and found about thirty fish, of a different 
species from any known in our waters. These 
fish-baskets showed that they were now among 
savages that did not depend wholly on human 
flesh for subsistence. The villages, houses, and 
various implements and articles of household 
furniture were far in advance of those anions the 
cannibals above them. At the same time the 
people here seemed more alert, fearless and de- 
termined. 



PORTUGUESE MUSKETS. , Q r- 

The carry around these falls was not interrupted, 
and the immense labor of transporting so many 
boats and so much baggage along a rough-cut 
path was cheerfully performed. The next day, 
however, while congratulating; themselves on the 
changed condition of things, they saw a large 
number of canoes approaching, and soon a musket- 
shot rang over the water, and one of Stanley's 
men fell. A new peril now threatened them — 
they found the natives armed with Portuguese 
muskets. Though it was a sure sign that they 
were approaching the coast, it showed also that 
hereafter it was to be fire-arms against fire-arms, 
not rifles against spears and arrows ; and if the 
natives continued hostile, the destruction of the 
expedition seemed certain with such odds against 
it. Heretofore, in every combat the men picked 
up a number of native shields, almost as big as 
doors, which they preserved. In battle, the women 
and children would hold these before the soldiers, 
which was the chief reason why there had been so 
few casualties when fighting 1 from the boats ; but 
if bullets hereafter were to be fired, these would 
be of no use. Still there was nothing left but to 
fight to the last. 

This changed condition of things caused Stan- 
ce & 

ley the greatest anxiety. He, however, formed 
his boats in line of battle and the firing com- 
menced — the natives after every discharge retiring 
to reload. Stanley's soldiers fired so rapidly, and 



406 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



with such deadly effect, that after an hour had 
past the natives withdrew, and the expedition 
moved off and was soon lost to si^ht amid the in- 
numerable islands that studded the river, and each 
of which was loaded with the most luxuriant veg- 
etation. 

The next day they floated down the river un- 
disturbed, the islands growing more numerous as 
it expanded, until now it had become several miles 
wide. On one island they saw an immense ele- 
phant standing amid the trees, but no one pro- 
posed to stop and kill him, though his huge tusks 
were a tempting sight ; there was too much at 
stake to think of hunting the great crocodiles and 
hippopotami and other amphibious monsters, who 
made the channels around these islands their 
home. 

The next day, the 13th of February, they sud- 
denly came upon a large number of villages. 
They were hidden from view, till the boats were so 
close upon them that it was too late to retreat. 
The next minute the forest resounded with the 
loud war-drums and ivory horns, while the fierce 
war-cries had changed their character and sounded 
like nothing human Stanley had ever heard. 
Bright gun-barrels gleamed above the light, grace- 
ful boats as they came swiftly on. But as they 
drew near the natives seemed to be filled with 
such strange wonder at the novel spectacle of two 
white men, that they did not fire, but sat and stared 



CHASED AGAIN. * Q y 

at them as if they had been ghosts. They fol- 
lowed for five miles in dead silence, when one of 
them fired and killed an Arab. In an instant, the 
boats wheeled and opened such a rapid fusillade 
that the savages retreated. But, when Stanley 
again resumed his downward course they turned 
and followed again, hovering like hawks around 
him for five miles, but making no attack. 

They were now just above the equator, and 
were moving south-west. The next morning the 
islands were so thick that they shut out both banks, 
but keeping on down stream they at length came 
upon a village, and attempted to pass it unob- 
served, but the tap of a drum showed that they 
were observed, and their hearts sank within them 
at the prospect of another fight. In a few minutes 
drum was answering drum in every direction, and 
soon the savages were seen manning their canoes. 
Stanley, seeing his men were worn down by this 
incessant fighting, made them a short speech, tell- 
ing them if they must die it should be with their 
guns in their hands. He had come to have great 
contempt for the natives on the water so long as 
they were without fire-arms. He could soon scat- 
ter them and keep them at a respectful distance 
with his rifles, but when it should be five hundred 
muskets against his forty guns, the whole charac- 
ter of the struggle would be changed. 

As they quietly floated down, canoe after canoe 
filled with gayly-decorated savages shot out into 



408 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



the river, till an immense fleet of them was in 
pursuit. Stanley ordered his men to cease pad- 
dling and wait their approach, determined, if 
possible, to make peace. But, while he was 
standing up holding out cloth and wire and making 
peaceful gestures, the crew of one canoe fired 
into his boat, wounding three men. 

There was nothing' left now but to fight, and 
soon the crash of fire-arms awoke the echoes of 
the forest-covered shores. The men had raised 
their shields, and to their joy found them a perfect 
protection, as the enemy fired bits of iron and 
copper, that could not penetrate them any more 
than the native arrows. As the fight went on 
other canoes arrived, until Stanley counted sixty- 
three canoes which he estimated carried five guns 
apiece, which would .make three hundred and 
fifteen to his forty-four — a desperate odds truly, 
and if the Africans' guns had been loaded with 
bullets, they would have doubtless then and there 
ended the expedition. It is a little curious that 
whenever Stanley gets into a desperate strait that 
even his boldness and pluck cannot help him out 
of, some unforseen thing comes to his aid, and he 
escapes. 

In this case his rifles had much longer range 
and greater penetrating force than the old-fash- 
ioned muskets, so most of the enemy kept at a 
distance of a hundred yards. One brave fellow, 
however, kept dashing up to within fifty yards and 



FAMINE A T HAND. 



411 



firing, till he was wounded. It was a lucky thing 
for Stanley that their guns were poor, their car- 
tridges feeble and their aim bad. At length the 
fire began to slacken, and dwindling down to now 
and then a random shot, before six o'clock it ceased 
altogether. 

The fieht beinof over, the men laid down their 
guns and once more took up their paddles and 
were soon out of sight of their enemies, and at 
sunset they camped on an island that lay amid a 
nest of islets. 

The next day, the 15th, they continued their 
journey and for three days were unmolested and 
allowed to enjoy the magnificent scenery amid 
which they floated ; but they had little inclination 
to admire scenery, for they were half-starved, not 
having been able to purchase a particle of food 
for a week. On the 19th they came to a great 
river, the largest tributary they had yet seen, 
pouring an enormous volume of black water into 
the Livingstone. 

It now began to look as if, having escaped death 
by battle and the cataracts, they were about to 
yield to famine. They met fishermen, but these 
would have nothing to do with them. On the 
19th, nine days since they had been able to pur- 
chase any provisions, .they came to Ikengo, where 
to their great joy they found friendly natives. The 
next day Stanley held a market on the island 
where he had encamped, to which the neighboring 



412 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



chiefs came, as well as the villagers. Trade was 
brisk and before night he had a bountiful supply 
of sheep, goats, bananas, flour, sweet potatoes and 
various tropical fruits, for which he exchanged 
cloth, beads and wire. The men revelled in the 
unexpected abundance, and hope and joy took the 
place of gloom and discontent. The next day 
they resumed their apparently endless journey, 
and floated peacefully amid green islands, scat- 
tered like gems over the broad bosom of the now 
friendly stream. 

On the 23d, while floating quietly down, word 
was brought Stanley that the wife of one of the 
Arab chiefs, who had been sick for some time, was 
dying, and he pulled his boat alongside of the one 
in which she lay. She knew she was going, and 
bade him an affectionate good-bye. Soon after 
she expired. At sunset a weight was tied to her 
body, and she was dropped into the waters of the 
river, and left to sleep in this lonely bed, far away 
from the cocoa-nuts and mangoes of her native 
land. 

Their course now led them among beautiful 
islets, made gay by the rich plumage of tropical 
birds. Occasionally they met a few canoes, but 
no hostility was exhibited. On the 27th, they came 
upon natives fishing, who at once showed them- 
selves to be friendly, and exhibited no distrust at 
all. It was a new revelation to the wanderers. 
Hitherto, it was only after the most patient waiting 



HOSPITABLE ENTER TAJNMENT. 



413 



and persevering efforts that they could gain the 
confidence of the savages, if, indeed, they secured 
it at all. Here it was freely given, and they di- 
rected them to a good camping place, on an island 
from whence they looked across to the fields and 
villages of Chumbiri, where these fishermen be- 
longed. The fishermen then departed, to report 
to their king, who sent them back with presents 
of food, and a promise that he would visit the camp. 
True to his word, he appeared next day, escorted by 
five canoes filled with soldiers, carrying muskets. 
He wore a curious hat, was very cool and self- 
possessed in his manner, and inclined to be socia- 
ble. He took snuff incessantly, and in enormous 
quantities. After a long conversation, he invited 
them to make his village their home, and Stanley, 
wishing to learn all he could of the river below, 
accepted the invitation, and the expedition crossed 
the river and was received in savage pomp. A 
grand market was held, and exchanges freely 
made. The women did not seem to be of the pure 
African blood, being- brown instead of black, with 
large eyes, beautifully shaped shoulders, and alto- 
gether very pretty. They were fond of ornaments, 
some of them wearing thirty pounds of brass wire 
around their necks. Stanley estimated that the 
forty wives, six daughters and the female slaves 
of the king carried on their necks about one thou- 
sand four hundred pounds of brass wire. 

He stayed here a week, enjoying the hospitality 



414 



IN THE WILDS OF. AFRICA. 



of the king, who, in addition to all his other kind- 
nesses, gave him three canoes, as an escort, and 
on the 7th of March he turned the prows of his 
boats again down stream. That night they en- 
camped in a jungle, into which two immense ser- 
pents crawled, one of which was killed just as he 
be^an to twine his folds about a woman. It meas- 
ured thirteen feet and a half in length, and fifteen 
inches round the body. Having passed tributary 
after tributary, they went ashore on the morning 
of the 9th to cook breakfast. The women were 
busily engaged in preparing it, when they were 
startled by loud musket shots and six of the men 
fell. They had been taken completely by surprise, 
but springing to their guns, they dashed into the 
woods and a fierce fight followed, which lasted an 
hour. It was one incessant crack of musketry, 
each one sheltering himself as best he could. The 
savages were finally driven off, but not until they 
had wounded fourteen of Stanley's men. This 
was the sharpest fight he had yet had, and if it 
were a fair prelude to what was to follow, the ex- 
pedition would soon consistof nothing but wounded 
men. It is astonishing, that in all these fights, of 
which this was the thirty-second and last, neither 
Stanley nor Pocoke should receive a wound. 

After the wounded men had been attended to, 
they again set out and floated peacefully down, not 
suspecting any danger, until they approached a 
settlement which suddenly swarmed with excited 



"STANLEY POOL." ,j ^ 

armed men. Rowing away as fast as possible, 
they soon got clear of the village, and encamped 
three miles below. The next day the voyage was 
charming, taking them through beautiful and ever- 
changing scenery. Nothing occurred to mar their 
pleasure the following day except a fierce south 
wind, which now began to set in regularly every 
day, making the river exceedingly rough for the 
canoes, especially at this point, where the river 
expanded to nearly two miles in width. This great 
breadth extended as far as the eye could reach, 
and, hemmed in by cliffs, it resembled a pool, 
which young Pocoke christened " Stanley Pool. " 

Paddling slowly down this pool, they passed 
several villages. Makoneh, the chief of one, 
proved very kind and hospitable, and offered to 
conduct Stanley to the next cataract. As they 
swept down, they halted at a friendly village, the 
chief of which inquired how they expected to get 
over the mighty falls below. He was a bluff, ge- 
nial, good-souled negro, who seemed glad to assist 
them in any way in his power, and finally offered 
to guide them to the cataract. Moving down, 
soon its low roar was heard swelling over the for- 
est, gradually increasing as they advanced till it 
rose like a continuous thunder-peal from the soli- 
tude below. 

Makoneh led the way, and just skirting the first 
line of breakers he landed on a pebbly beach. 
The village of Itsi was in sight, he being the petty 



4! 5 ^ v THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 

king of a neighboring tribe. Some canoes soon 
crossed from it, and were received so kindly that 
the natives went back with such wonderful stories 
to their king that next day he paid Stanley a visit. 
He came in a large canoe carrying eighty-six per- 
sons. It was over eighty-five feet long, and pro- 
pelled by sixty paddlers. These, standing up and 
keeping time with their strokes to the steady beat 
of a drum, sent the boat like an arrow through the 
water and made a stirring picture as they dashed 
up to Stanley's camp. There were several gray- 
headed men present, one of whom was introduced 
to Stanley as the king. The latter noticed that 
the rest laughed heartily at this, which afterwards 
turned out to be a practical joke. However, 
Stanley sat down with the venerable person in am- 
icable conversation, while a young native and 
Frank seemed to strike up a warm friendship for 
each other, or at least the native for Pocoke, judg- 
ing by the way he pressed presents on him. 

It seemed strange to Stanley that the young 
savage should give twice as much to Frank as the 
king gave to him, but it now came out that this 
young man was the king, and the aged man Stanley 
had been conversing with was merely one of his 
counselors. Stanley at once changed his atten- 
tion, and asked him what present would please 
him. The royal young savage had been looking 
about at the various things in camp, and seeing a 
very large goat, told Stanley that he wished " big 



BROTHERL Y PROCEEDINGS. 



4*7 



goat." Now this happened to be the last thing 
the latter wished to part with. A lady in England 
had requested him to bring back a goat of this 
very breed, and he had purchased several, of which 
this alone had survived the long and dangerous 
journey. He therefore endeavored to bribe the 
young king by doubling the other presents he had 
prepared. No, he would have the " big goat." 
Stanley then offered to give him an ass instead. 
At this the savage seemed to hesitate. The don- 
key was very desirable, but at this critical moment 
the animal sent up a huge bray, which so fright- 
ened the women that he would not take him. 
Other tempting offers were made but nothing 
would do but the " big goat," and as Stanley was 
short of provisions (the men having squandered 
those the king of Chambiri had given them), and as 
he must have these, he reluctantly turned over the 
big goat and the young king departed highly de- 
lighted. The next day he returned bringing three 
ordinary goats in exchange and some provisions. 
Soon the kings or chiefs of other neighboring 
tribes came in bringing fruit, and everything was 
harmonious, and treaties of amity were made with 
all. The one with Itsi was quite ceremonious. 
Among other things, he gave Stanley a white 
powder as a charm against evil, in return for which, 
the latter, with all due gravity, presented him with 
a half-ounce vial full of magnesia as the white 
man's charm. This and blood-brotherhood closed 
27 



41 8 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA 

the formal proceedings of the treaty-making pow- 
ers — quite as important, in their way, as similar 
councils in civilized countries. 

Stanley found by observation that though he 
had traveled from Nyangwe over one thousand 
two hundred miles, he had descended not quite a 
thousand feet. 









CHAPTER XXIV. 

AMONG THE CATARACTS. 

IT is a little singular, that in this age of inquiry 
and persistent effort to get at the cause of 
things, no one has yet attempted to explain 
the reason of tribal differences. Aborigines oc- 
cupying the same parallels of latitude and longi- 
tude, subject to the same influences of climate, 
living on the same diet, are different in color, fea- 
tures, and more than all, in disposition. The real, 
or supposed influences, that lie at the bottom of 
the different races, do not apply here. Difference 
of origin, of climate, of food, all these must have 
great effect in changing color, features and char- 
acter, and hence, to a certain extent, explain how- 
such distinct nationalities exist, but they do not in 
the least account for tribal differences where all 
these are the same, and where there are not even 
barriers of mountains and rivers separating them. 
Why should our western Indian tribes, roaming 
over the same prairies, living on the same food, 
and similar in all their modes of life, be yet so dif- 
ferent in form, feature and disposition ? Is there 
really no way of getting a satisfactory, true ex- 
planation of all this ? 

So in Africa, Stanley crossed the continent in 

(4i9) 



. 20 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

the same general range of latitude. The savages 
he met were all dwellers of the equatorial region, 
and hence lived in the same climate, used the same 
food, dressed in the same way, and lived the same 
life, and yet they were as dissimilar as different 
nationalities. If any educational influences had 
been brought to bear upon them one could under- 
stand this, but none have been exerted. These 
same tribal differences Stanley found on the Congo. 
Fierce cannibals and gentle agricultural people 
were living side by side. Suspicious, faithless 
men, differing very little from the better class of 
monkeys, lived neighbors to tribes unsuspicious 
and trustful, and wonderfully advanced in the arts 
of mechanism. At the falls, which were named 
" Stanley Falls," the natives were suspicious, faith- 
less, cruel, but when he reached the Livingstone 
Falls, he found the people hospitable, kind and 
trustful. When this difference burst on Stanley 
practically, he felt it sensibly, but he philosophi- 
cally dismissed it with the simple remark, such " is 
the effect of trade." We cannot accept this ex- 
planation at all, for they had no trade with the 
outside world, and they showed the same kindly 
natures before he commenced trading with them. 
The only evidence of their connection with civil- 
ized life was that they had muskets, and yet the 
very first tribe which possessed them was the most 
fierce, implacable and relentless he met with. This 
ethnological question has never yet been settled. 



WILD SURROUNDINGS. , 2I 

Still it is not singular that Stanley did not just 
then trouble himself with it. As long as the dif- 
ference existed and was now in his favor he was 
content, as well he might be. The friendly na- 
tives at the head of these falls assured him that 
he had passed the cannibal country, but they dif- 
fered materially as to the number of falls below — 
one making them three, another a half dozen or 
more. No matter whether they were few or 
many, they must be passed, though he dragged 
his canoes over lofty mountains to do it. 

But if the differences in the character of the 
natives was great, that in the character of the 
scenery and aspect of the river was no less so. 
The wild, fierce savages had become tame, while 
the gently flowing river, studded with green islands^ 
had become wild and fierce and angry. The 
gradually descending plain was transformed into 
the terrific gorge over which hung beetling cliffs, 
and the placid current into a roaring torrent dash- 
ing amid rocks, plunging over precipices, and fill- 
ing the solitudes with an ever-angry voice. Hos- 
tile savages were behind, but hostile nature was 
before the adventurers, to whom there would be 
no rest till they found the restless sea. 

Immediately before them were two stretches of 
rapids and then a cataract. The first was a mere 
piece of broken water that was easily passed. 
Having no fear of hostile natives, Stanley leisurely 
explored both river and shore to ascertain the best 



a 22 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

way of getting around the second rapids. The 
goods, asses, women and children were taken 
overland, while the boats were led with hawsers 
from rock to rock along the shore. Fortunately 
not a rope broke, and by five o'clock the rapids 
were passed and all were in camp together. 

The last of the rapids Stanley declared to be 
the wildest stretch of water he had ever seen. 
For four miles the river looked as if thrown up- 
ward by volcanic action beneath and at the same 
time swept by a fierce hurricane above, and all 
the while it was dashing madly on at the rate of 
thirty miles an hour. Huge troughs would be 
formed, as if the stream was yawning asunder, 
and then the divided water .would come together 
with a crash, sending up columns twenty feet high 
to dissolve in foam and spray. The crash of col- 
liding waves and the steady roar of the rapids 
were awful. It was literally a "hell of waters." 
The land carriaee around this wild stretch was a 
rough piece of work. Paths of brushwood were 
made, and the canoes slowly hauled up rocky 
heights and slid down into deep gullies — the 
women and children toiling after. They were 
nearly four days getting around this four miles of 
impassable rapids. The men were fainting for 
want of food when smooth water was at last 
reached. This, however, continued but a short 
distance, when they had to take to land again and 
haul their boats over a rocky point for three-quar- 



TERRIBLE RAPIDS. a 2 -1 

ters of a mile. This task took three days to ac- 
complish. When it is remembered that one of 
the canoes was eighty-five feet long, and another 
seventy-five and dug out of a solid tree, we can 
get some conception of the tremendous effort it 
required to transport them over rocks and hills. 
When smooth water was again reached, it gave 
them only a short respite. Stanley, however, 
found it necessary to halt and give the people 
rest, for the tremendous strain of the last week 
was telling fearfully on them. 

On the 25th, they found themselves once more 
confronted by ugly rapids. In endeavoring to 
lead the boats around them, the best canoe was 
dragged by the mere force of the current from the 
hands of fifty men and whirled down the mad 
stream and dashed to pieces. Toiling amid the 
rocks several men were injured, one having his 
shoulder dislocated, while Stanley fell into a chasm 
thirty feet deep, but fortunately struck on his feet, 
and thus escaped with some slight bruises, though 
he was very much stunned. On the 27th, they 
succeeded in getting past this "cauldron," as it was 
called, although they narrowly escaped losing their 
largest canoe. The next day they had smooth 
water for a short distance and then they came to 
"Rocky Falls." These, however, were passed with 
comparative ease and two men were sent forward 
to explore. They reported, on their return, that 
about a mile below was another cataract, and that 



4 24 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

at its head was an excellent camping place in a 
sheltered bay. Stanley determined to reach this 
spot before dark, and so, manning his seventeen re- 
maining canoes, he led the way, hugging the shore, 
so as not to oret into the suction of the water above 

o 

the falls. All were told to follow him and by no 
means to venture out into the middle of the stream. 
Keeping close to the right bank, he felt his way 
carefully onward and at last floated into the tran- 
quil bay, at the head of the fall. Three canoes 
followed him, and as he was waiting- for the others 
to come in he saw, to his horror, the largest canoe 
in midstream and coming down like a race-horse. 
Kalulu had charge of this, and deceived by the 
smooth, glassy surface of the stream, he had pulled 
out into midcurrent. The moment he was caught 
by it his doom and that of the four men with him 
was sealed. There was nothing to be done by 
those on shore but to watch the swiftly-gliding 
boat till it shot over the edge of the falls to dis- 
appear in the tumult below. Three of the men 
were Stanley's especial favorites, and he felt their 
loss keenly. While his eyes was yet resting on 
the spot where they had gone down, another canoe 
shot in sight, driving straight for the falls. Fortu- 
nately, it struck them at the least dangerous point 
and went over safely, then, skillfully working the 
canoe toward the shore, its two inmates sprang 
overboard and swam to land. Stanley immediately 
dispatched his boat's crew up-stream to tell the 



SOUDPS MAR VELOUS ESCAPE. a 2 j 

rest to hug the shore, and in no case to venture 
out into the stream. Before they reached the ca- 
noes, another one, with only the lad Soudi, shot 
by, he crying, as he was borne swiftly onward, 
" There is but one God — I am lost, master," and 
the next moment he too dropped out of sight. 
Strange to say, though the canoe was whirled about 
at the bottom like a spinning-top, it did not sink, 
and was finally swept out of sight behind an 
island. The rest of the canoes arrived safely. 

The next day Stanley sent Frank to bring over 
the goods to where he was encamped, while he 
himself traded with the natives, whom he found 
very friendly, and from whom he obtained abun- 
dant provisions. After resting one day, they got 
everything round the falls and encamped on the 
i st of April. In the afternoon, to the surprise and 
joy of all, young Soudi walked into camp. He 
had a strange story to tell. He was borne help- 
lessly down the rapids, confused and dizzy, till at 
last the boat drifted against a rock, when he jumped 
out and got on shore. Before he had time to 
think where he was, he was seized from behind and 
pinioned, and dragged to the top of the mountain by 
two men, who stripped and examined him with great 
curiosity. The next day several of the tribe came 
to see him, one of whom had been in Stanley's 
camp when King Itsi visited it, and he told such 
terrible stories about Stanley and of his gun that 
could shoot all day, that they became frightened 



428 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



and took Soudi back to the place where they had 
found him, and told him to speak well of them. 
The other two men who had gone safely over the 
fall, and also joined the camp. 

Proceeding on down-stream they came to more 
rapids, in passing which they met many narrow 
escapes. It was, indeed, a succession of rapids, 
and while Stanley conducted the boats through 
them, Frank took the rest of the party and goods 
overland. The former examined every inch of the 
way carefully before starting. Thus day after day 
passed, they continually fighting the relentless 
river. Sometimes the water was too rough to 
admit the passage of the boats, and then they had 
to be carried overland. It was slow and tedious 
work, and but little progress was made. The 
question each one kept asking himself was, how 
long will this last and when shall we see smooth 
water again? 

Each day was but the repetition of its predeces- 
sor, and if the natives had been as hostile as those 
farther up the river, they could not have got on 
at all. The only variation was when the river 
took some new whim or the formation of the coun- 
try required more effort and new modes of getting 
on. Thus one day they undertook to lead the ca- 
noes by hawsers around a rocky point where the 
eddies set up-stream with the strength and veloc- 
ity of a torrent, so that it seemed impossible to 
get them down-stream. To add to the difficulty, 



NARROW ESCAPE OF STANLEY. 



429 



the cliffs on the top of which the men with the 
hawsers stood, were fifty feet high and their jagged 
edges sawed the ropes till they parted one after 
another. 

So creeping along the shore to-day, and daring 
the midstream, which, though boisterous, was 
clear of rocks, to-morrow, they kept on, hoping 
after the next stretch to reach a quiet flowing river. 
The Lady Alice fared hard in this perilous navi- 
gation, and once came near being lost. All this 
time the resources of the expedition were being 
exhausted, for though the natives were friendly 
everything had to be paid for, and it was not diffi- 
cult to answer the question, "How long will our 
remaining currency last ?" 

The next rapids they came to Stanley named 
the "Lady Alice Rapids," because, as we suppose, 
both he and the boat escaped almost by a miracle 
from sharing one sad fate in the wild and mad 
waters of the Livingstone. The cables lashed to 
bow and stern, to let the boat down, parted, or 
were snatched from the hands on shore, and away 
she dashed down the foaming current. Above, 
the naked cliffs rose three hundred feet high — 
around boiled and tossed the tumultuous waters, 
and certain destruction seemed to await the man 
who had triumphed over so many obstacles and 
who at last was nearing- the eoal of his ambition. 
The Arabs, whose life depended on his life, were 
in despair — their master was gone- — there was no 



430 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



one left to lead them out of this strange wilder- 
ness. Nothing but the coolness of Stanley saved 
him and his crew. Watching every change in the 
flow of the current- — resigning himself to the wild 
will of the mad waters when struggling was use- 
less — taking advantage of every favorable change 
of the current and bidding his men row for life at 
the right time, he at length reached shore, and at 
once sent messengers to his despairing camp to 
tell them he was safe. He knew, and they knew, 
that all their lives hune on his. He had a narrow 
escape, and the natives on shore, as they watched 
his boat flung about like a cockle-shell in the boil- 
ing surge, looked upon him as lost. 

If Stanley wanted any new proof of the affection 
of his Arabs for him, he had it now. He had been 
able, after his fierce struggle with the rapids and 
being carried, in the meantime, over one fall, to 
reach land at least two miles below his camp, in 
which he was looked upon as lost. When, there- 
fore, the message was received that he was alive 
and safe, his followers streamed forth in one con- 
fused mass, and hastening down the river, came in 
a long, straggling line in sight of Stanley, waving 
their arms on hio-h, shouting words of welcome and 
overwhelming him with expressions of exuberant 
joy. This involuntary outburst of feeling and 
gratitude that their "master" was safe, repaid 
him tenfold for all the suffering and peril he had 
endured. It is strange, when such momentous 



A CL USTER OF CA TAR A CTS. a^ 

results hang on a single life, how we go on as 
though nothing depended upon it till the moment 
comes when we are about losing it. 

The men, women and children had joined in this 
grand exodus to congratulate Stanley on his de- 
liverance from what appeared certain death, and 
the men now returned to bring the goods to this 
point where the new camp was pitched. Not twenty 
rods from it the Nikenke River came foaming and 
tumbling into the Livingstone from a precipice one 
thousand feet high, with a terrific roar and rumble. 
Almost as near, another tributary dashed over a 
ledge four hundred feet high, while just above was 
the wild rapids he had just passed, and just below 
another stretch of swift and tumbling water. The 
din of these surrounding cataracts made a fearful, 
terrific music in these mysterious solitudes, and 
awakened strange feelings in Stanley, as he lay 
and listened and wondered what would come next. 
The sharp crash of the near cataract tumbling 
from its height of a thousand feet, the low rumble 
of the lower fall and the deep boom of the mighty 
river made up a grand diapason there in the wilds 
of Central Africa. West from the great lakes the 
continent seemed to stretch in one vast plateau, 
across which the river moved in placid strength, 
its gently sweeping current parted with beautiful 
islands, that filled the air with perfume exhaled 
from countless flowers and tropical plants, and 
making a scene of loveliness that intoxicated the 



432 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

senses. But all this was marred by the presence 
of blood-thirsty cannibals, whose war-drums and 
savage cries filled this world of beauty with terrific 
sounds and nameless fears. But the moment the 
stream reached the edge of this plateau, where man 
seemed to become more human, it rolled into cata- 
racts and rapids, down a steep incline, till it came 
to the sea. Canoes were upset and lost, and men 
were barely saved from death by expert swimming 
during these fearful days, and yet Stanley could 
get no reliable information from the natives how far 
down this remorseless stretch of water extended. 
This terrible struggle, which the' party underwent, 
and the exhausting nature of their work may be 
faintly imagined when it is stated that for thirty- 
seven consecutive days they made less than a mile 
a day. It was a constant succession of rapids from 
the middle of March to the latter part of April. 

At length, on the 2 2d, they came to the "big 
cataract," called by the natives Inkisi, which 
Stanley fondly believed would be the last. The 
table-land here is one thousand feet high, and the 
natives occupying it flocked into Stanley's camp, 
curious to know how he was to get his canoes past 
the falls. When he told them he was going to 
drag them over that table-land one thousand feet 
high, they looked at him in speechless astonish- 
ment. His own men were thunderstruck when 
he announced to them his determination. But 
they had become so accustomed to believe he could 



CANOES ON MOUNTAIN-TOPS. 



433 



do anything he resolved upon, that they silently- 
acquiesced. The natives, as they looked at the 
heavy canoes and then on the lofty height, with its 
steep, craggy ascent, took their departure and 
beg-an to climb back to their homes to. secure their 
property, for they said, if the white man intended 
to fly his boats over the mountains, they did not 
know what terrible things might next happen. 

Having settled on the undertaking, Stanley im- 
mediately set to work to carry it out, and the first 
day built a road nearly a mile long. The next day 
the Lady Alice and a small canoe were resting on 
the high summit. The work was done so quietly 
and without any disastrous results to life and 
property, that the native chiefs were dumb with 
admiration and offered to bring six hundred men 
next day to help haul up the heavy canoes. They 
kept their word, and soon boats and baggage were 
in camp on the top of the mountain. Sending off 
a party ten miles ahead to prepare the natives for 
his coming, Stanley took the women and children, 
with the goods and boat's crew, on to the next 
tribe to make a camp near the river, for the pur- 
pose of exploring the defile through which he was 
finally to work his way. 

He had found many articles of English make 
among the natives, showing that he was approach- 
ing the coast from which these must have been 
obtained. They had not, however, been brought 
there by traders, but had worked their way up 
28 



434 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



from market to market along the river. The sight 
of them was encouraging to the members of the 
expedition who were getting worn out, while dis- 
ease also prevailed to a large extent and threat- 
ened to increase. Still they might be a great way 
off from the coast yet, in time if not in distance, 
if they continued to make but one mile a day. 
Hence Stanley had to be very economical in 
everything, especially in the use of meat, though 
the constant and terrible mental and physical 
strain on him made it necessary that he should 
have the most nourishing food. For lack of this 
in a simple form, he concocted a dish out of 
vegetables, fruit and oil, which proved to him a 
great benefit 






CHAPTER XXV. 

EXPERIENCES BY THE WAY. 

IT was the 29th of April when Stanley gave 
his last instructions to his Arab chiefs about 
getting the canoes down the mountain to 
Nzabi, the home of the next tribe west. On his 
way he entered a magnificent forest — the tall and 
shapely trees of which reminded him of his early 
wanderings in the wilds of Arkansas and on our 
western frontiers. It was not strange, while look- 
ing at them, that he should be reminded of the 
"dug-outs" of the Indians which he had so often 
seen, and that the thought should occur to him to 
make some canoes, to take the place of those 
which he had lost in the passage of the rapids and 
falls above. It seems as if his early life had pre- 
pared him especially for all the contingencies that 
were to occur in his long and varied explorations 
in Africa. After thinking the matter over a short 
time, he resolved that the boats should be built, 
and having obtained permission of the chief of 
the district, he at once commenced operations. 
The first tree selected was more than three feet 
in diameter and ran up sixty feet straight before it 
reached a limb. As soon as it was prone on the 
ground the men were set to work in sections upon 

(435) 



436 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

it, and in a week it was finished. In a week more 
another was completed, measuring forty-five feet 
in length and eighteen inches deep. All this time 
the canoes were advancing over the land at the 
rate of a little more than a third of a mile a day, 
and finally they reached camp the day before the 
second boat was finished. 

Things, however, had gone badly in the camp 
on the mountain-top after Stanley left, for the 
Arabs, following their apparently natural propen- 
sity, began to steal. One man, who had been 
caught in the act, was seized and made a prisoner 
by the natives who resolved to keep him as a slave. 
Stanley spent an entire day negotiating for his re- 
demption, and finally had to give one hundred 
and fifty dollars' worth of cloth to get him released. 
It was plain that he could not afford to redeem 
many men at this price, and he distinctly told them 
that if after this any of them were caught steal- 
ing, they would be left in the hands of the natives, 
to be held as slaves for life. A terrible punish- 
ment, yet as it proved not great enough to deter 
them from committing the same crime afterwards, 
as opportunity offered. 

The labor of the men engaged in hauling the 
canoes over the high mountain had been so great, 
that Stanley felt that some days of rest were de- 
manded to recuperate them. But as idleness was 
always the fruitful source of all kinds of evil with 
the Arabs, he determined to keep the men who 



CANOE BUILDING. 



437 



had hewed out the two boats still at work, and 
set them to making a third canoe. 

The chief of this district now informed Stanley, 
greatly to his surprise and disappointment, that 
there were five falls immediately below him, while 
how many lay between these and the sea no one 
could tell. No matter; he must still move on, 
and, for the present, cling to the river on account 
of the sick, if for -no other reason. 

On the 1 8th, he sent off a man to get some axes 
repaired by a native blacksmith. While the latter 
was engaged in the work, a spark flew from the 
anvil against the body of one of his children play- 
ing near by, burning him slightly. The enraged 
man asserted that the accident was owing to a 
wicked charm of the stranger, and, running out, 
he beat the war-drum, at which the excited natives 
assembled in great fury, and the poor Arab was 
in danger of immediate immolation, when the chief 
happened to arrive and saved him. 

On May 2 2d, the great teak canoe, the third 
which had been built, and which Stanley named 
Livingstone, was launched in the creek just above 
its entrance into the river amid the shouts of the 
natives. It could carry forty-six people. So far 
as means of transportation was concerned, Stanley 
was now at ease — but would there ever be a 
peaceful river on which these twelve canoes could 
float? 

It was now the 2 2d of May, and since the 24th 



438 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



of February there had been forty rainy days, and 
hence for the month they had been working their 
slow, tedious way over the ridges and mountains, 
the river had been continually rising and now, 
more than eleven feet above its usual height, it 
was rolling in a grand, resistless flood through the 
gorges. Thunder 'and lightning had accompanied 
the storms, lighting up the wild river, drowning its 
fierce roar and drenching the wanderers, till it 
seemed as if heaven itself was leagued with the 
natives and the cataracts to drive them to despair 
and to destruction. The river was still rising, and 
the rush and roar of the waters were only less 
terrific than the deafening thunder-peels that shook 
the chasm in which they were confined. Still they 
must move on, even though it should be to greater 
horrors and more desperate conditions and a 
darker fate. So on the 23d of May they set out, 
and carrying around a short fall in the creek on 
the banks of which they had been encamping, and 
ascending a mountain, they pushed slowly on for 
three miles over a plateau — the sick and suffering 
complaining bitterly, while the well were almost 
ready to give out and die then and there on the 
shores of the river. Every fall was expected to be 
the last, and yet each proved the forerunner only 
of a worse one to come. 

From this creek Stanley led those of the expe- 
dition who could walk to the head of the Mowwa 
Falls. Frank, whose lame foot did not permit him 



A TERRIFIC PASS. a<>q 

to walk, took the Lady Alice, followed by the 
canoes, out of the mouth of the creek, to coast 
carefully along down the river to the same camp- 
ing-place. In the meantime, Stanley, who had 
arrived first, took a long and anxious survey of 
the terrific scene before him. At the head of the 
falls, where he stood on ,#. grassy plot, a ledge of 
rock twelve feet high ran straight across the river 
like a wall for a mile and a quarter and then 
stopped. From the end to the opposite shore it 
was a clear space of a little more than a quarter 
of a mile, through which the compressed river 
rushed with a strength and shout and fury that 
were appalling. This wall of rock, however, was 
not solid — here and there it was cut through as if 
by some mighty blow, making separate channels 
that had a fall of twelve feet. Below, as far as the 
eye could reach, treeless mountains arose nearly a 
mile into the heavens, while halfway up from the 
mad river, that tore with the sound of thunder 
along their bases, perpendicular cliffs stood walling 
in this awful embodiment of power. 

A scene of more utter desolation cannot be 
imagined than was here presented to his view in 
this solitary spot. The camp seemed a mere speck 
amid these gigantic outlines of mountain and river. 
As he thus looked and listened, awe-struck and 
subdued, he saw Frank in the Lady Alice coming 
through the rapids at a terrific pace. This was 
the first time Frank had attempted such a feat, and 



440 IN THE W^LDS OF AFRICA. 

he got confused, and was finally thrown into the 
worst part of the rapids, and in his frantic struggles 
to release himself, he struck a rock and stove a 
hole six inches square into the boat. However, 
all were landed in safety, though Stanley mourned 
greatly over the severe injury to his boat, which 
thus far had escaped all harm. It took him a 
whole day to repair it. Two days after, the goods 
were transferred below and the boats dropped 
carefully through the ledge near the shore, where 
the water was less rough, and reached the camp 
below the great falls in safety. 

While resting- here there occurred one of the 
most interesting scenes of this whole remarkable 
journey. In the transportation of goods over the 
mountains robberies of beads, etc., had been com- 
mitted, and now the last man in the whole party 
Stanley would wish to have accused of theft 
was found guilty — the noble, brave, reliable and 
kind Uledi. True as steel in the hour of danger, 
quiet, obedient, thinking nothing of his life if 
Stanley asked him to risk it, he had yet stolen — 
not things of ordinary value, but that on which 
their very existence might depend. Cloth was 
getting so plenty among the natives that its value 
was very much decreased, but beads were worth 
ten times their weight in gold, and these Uledi 
had stolen and hidden in his mat. Of course this 
must be stooped at all hazards and at whatever 
sacrifice, still Stanley would almost as soon have 



A TRIAL FOR THEFT. .^j 

lost his hand as to leave Uledi, as he had threatened 
he would the next man he caught stealing, in the 
hands of the savages as a slave forever. He 
therefore called the chiefs together and made them 
a speech, in which he clearly showed them that 
their lives depended on putting a stop to theft, for 
if they were left without anything to buy provisions 
with they all would inevitably perish of famine 
before they reached the sea. He also asked them 
what should be done with Uledi, on whom stolen 
goods had been found. 

The principal chief would not answer for some 
time, but being urged to give his opinion said at 
last : It was very hard, seeing it was Uledi. Had 
it been anybody else he declared he would vote to 
pitch him into the river, but now he gave his vote 
for flogging. The rest of the chiefs concurred 
with him. Stanley then turned to the boat's crew ? 
of which Uledi was coxswain and by whom he was 
dearly loved. The principal one and the most 
relied on, the watchman of the boat, replied, "Ah, 
it is a hard question, master. He is like our elder 
brother; but, as the fathers of the people have 
spoken, be it so ; yet, for our sakes, master, beat 
him just a little!' He next accosted Zaidi, by 
whose side Uledi had cluno- all ni^ht in the midst 
of the cataract, and had saved his life by risking 
his own. He replied, "Remember it is Uledi, 
master." Next he addressed Uledi's brother, who 
cried " Spare Uledi, but, if he must be flogged, 



4 a 2 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

give me half of it, I shall not feel it if it is for Ule- 
di." Last of all he asked the poor culprit's cousin, 
when he replied in a speech that the London Athe- 
naeum, in quoting it, said would stand beside that 
of Jeanie Dean's when pleading for her sister. 
It occurred thus : 

The poor fellow asked, "Will the master give his 
slave liberty to speak ?" " Yes," replied Stanley. 
He then came forward, and kneeling before him 
and clasping his feet with his hands, said : " The 
master is wise. All things that happen he writes 
in a book. Each day there is something written. 
We black men know nothing, neither have we any 
memory. What we saw yesterday is to-day for- 
gotten. Yet the master forgets nothing. Perhaps, 
if the master will look into his book, he may see 
something in it about Uledi. How Uledi behaved 
on Lake Tanganika ; how he rescued Zaidi from 
the cataract ; how he has saved many men, whose 
names I cannot remember, from the river — Bill 
Ali, Mabruki, Kom-kusi and others. How he 
worked harder on the canoe than any three men ; 
how he has been the first to listen to your voice 
always ; how he has been the father of the boat- 
boys. With Uledi, master, the boat-boys are 
good and ready, without him they are nothing. 
Uledi is Shumari's brother. If Uledi is bad, Shu- 
mari is good. Uledi is my cousin. If, as the 
chiefs say, Uledi should be punished, Shumari 
says he will take half of the punishment; then 



A TOUCHING SCENE. **~ 

give Saywa the other half, and set Uledi free. 
Saywa has spoken." 

All this was uttered in a low, humble tone, with 
his head bowed to Stanley's feet. Stanley could 
not resist such an appeal, and said : " Very well, 
Uledi, by the voice of the people, is condemned ; 
but as Shumari and Saywa have promised to take 
the punishment on themselves, Uledi is set free 
and Shumari and Saywa are pardoned." The 
moment the poor fellow was set free, he stepped 
forward and said : " Master, it was not Uledi who 
stole — it was the devil which entered into his heart." 

This touching scene is given, not merely for its 
pathos, but because these untutored natives, here 
in the wilds of Africa, illustrated the principles that 
lie at the very foundation of the Christian religion. 
First, they recognized the great fundamental doc- 
trine of atonement — of expiation — the suffering of 
the innocent in the place of the guilty, by which the 
offender can be pardoned. In the second place, 
Uledi uttered over again the sentiments of Paul — 
when a man's whole nature revolts at the wrong 
he has done, and hates himself for it, it is not he 
that commits it, but " sin that dwelleth in him," 
when he would do good, evil was present with him. 
It was a happy termination of the affair, for it 
would have been a cruel act to have had the noble, 
true, unselfish and brave Uledi suffer the indignity 
of a whip. 

Another scene occurred, while in camp, that 



444 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



shows on what an insignificant, nay, ridiculous, 
thing the fate of a great expedition may turn. 
One day, Stanley being at leisure took out his 
note-book and began to write, as was his custom 
when he had a few hours to himself. The natives 
who flocked into camp in great numbers daily, 
noticed him and began to whisper among them- 
selves. The crowd around him gradually increased 
and began to be strangely agitated, as the word 
" tara tara" passed from lip to lip, and presently, 
as if seized by a single impulse, they all ran away. 
Stanley merely observed the fact without stopping 
to think what the cause of this sudden abandon- 
ment of the camp might be. He therefore went 
on writing, when suddenly he was startled by loud 
war-cries rinoqncr far and near over the mountain 
top, and, two hours after, he saw between five and 
six hundred natives fully armed rushing down the 
table-land toward the camp. He quickly mustered 
his men to be prepared for what seemed an unpro- 
voked attack, but determined, if possible, to avoid 
a collision. He therefore advanced toward them 
as they drew near, and, sitting down on the ground, 
in a friendly tone asked what it all meant and why 
they had come in such a warlike manner to their 
friends. A large savage, acting as spokesman, 
replied that they had seen him make marks on 
some " tara tara." Those black lines he had drawn 
on paper, he said, would bring sickness and death 
and utter ruin on the land, and the people, and 



AN UNEXPECTED DILEMMA. 

445 

animals, unless the book containing them was 
burnt up. 

Here was an unexpected dilemma. He must 
burn up that note-book or fight these five or six 
hundred armed, desperate savages. But that note- 
book, the gathered results of nearly three years of 
exploration, was the most precious thing on earth 
to him. He was astounded and sorely perplexed 
at the strange demand — burn up that note-book ! 
He might as well burn up himself. Even if he 
could remember his main adventures, he could not 
recall all the observations, plans of maps and 
routes, and statistics of every kind it contained, 
and without which the whole expedition was a fail- 
ure. No, he could not give it up, but what then 
— fight one against four, all armed with muskets, 
to retain it? Suppose he could put them to rout, 
it could not be done without a serious loss of life 
to himself as well as to them. But this was not 
the worst of it — with the natives friendly and aiding 
him as they had done, and supplying him with pro- 
visions, it would be almost a miracle if he ever 
reached the sea-shore ; but with them hostile, even 
if he could fight his way through them, he would 
certainly perish from famine, for he could obtain 
no provisions, without which, he and the book 
would perish together. But, still, he could not 
give up that book, and he turned over in his mind 
every conceivable plan of averting the catastrophe. 
Finally, he told them to wait a moment, while, in 



446 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, 

the meantime, he stepped back to his tent as if to 
fetch it. 

All at once it occurred to him that he might sub- 
stitute another book for it, if, among his scant 
collection, he could find one at all resembling it. 
Turning them over, he came across a volume of 
Shakespeare of just about the same size. True 
the binding was different, but those savages knew 
as little of the peculiar binding of a book as 
they did of its contents. Besides it lay open on 
Stanley's knee when they saw it, and they observed 
only the black lines. However, the attempt to 
pass it off on these wild savages for the real book 
was worth making. So taking it in his hand, he 
walked back to where they stood with ferocious 
looks waiting for his decision, and handing it to 
them, told them to take it. No, they would not 
touch it, he must burn it. Well, Stanley said, he 
would do anything to please such good friends as 
they were. So together they went to a camp-fire 
near by, and solemnly consigned poor Shake- 
speare to the flames. 

The natives were delighted at this evidence of 
Stanley's good-will, and became faster friends than 
ever. What he would have done had it come to 
the issue — burn that note-book or fight — he does 
not tell us. 

The river had been thoroughly explored for two 
miles below where they were encamped to the 
head of Zinga Falls. It was a rough, wild stretch 



A MERRY EVENING. 



447 



of water, but it was thought it might be passed 
safely by using great caution and keeping out of 
the midstream rapids. At all events, Stanley had 
determined to try it first himself in his own boat — 
a resolution that nearly cost him his life. The 
next day, the 3d of June, the attempt was to be 
made, and Frank passed the evening in Stanley's 
tent in great spirits, talking and singing songs of 
merry old England. He was always singing, and 
most of the time religious songs which he had 

o o 

learned at home. The wilds of Africa had equal- 
ized these men, and they held sweet communion 
together this last night on the banks of the wild 
river. Frank seemed unusually exhilarated, little 
dreaming, alas, that the next night his lifeless body 
would be tossing amid the rocks that lined the bed 
of the fierce torrent below — his merry songs all 
hushed — nevermore to while away the weary hours 
in this dreary solitude of Africa or brighten the 
life of his England home. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

DEATH OF FRANK POCOKE. 

FRANK POCOKE, as stated previously, 
joined the expedition under Stanley as a 
servant, and his brother had fallen at what 
proved to be the mere outset of the real main ex- 
pedition, subsequently Frank, by his intelligence, 
geniality, ability and courage, and perhaps quite 
as much by the necessity of companionship that 
Stanley felt the need of in that wild region, and 
which only a white, civilized man could furnish, 
had risen above the position he had taken till 
Stanley looked upon him more as a friend than as 
a servant. This was natural ; he was the only 
man he could talk with in English ; the only man 
who. had the taste and manners of civilized life ; 
the only one who in the long halt could in any 
way be his companion ; and, more than all, the 
only man who could certainly be depended on to 
stand by him in the hour of danger to the last, 
and fall, if fall they must, side by side. Whoever 
else might prove false in these vast untrodden 
solitudes, Frank Pocoke, he well knew, would not 
be one of them. Under such circumstances and 
conditions, Stanley would not have been the true 
man he is if he had not lifted the servant up to 

(448) 



PO COKE'S VALUE TO STANLEY. A*g 

the place of a friend. It was therefore but natural 
that in the long mental discussion at Ziangwe as 
to whether he should return or choose some other 
route than through the hostile tribes whose terri- 
tory the waters of the Lualaba washed, or push 
on at all hazards by following its current to the 
sea, that he should take his quondam servant into 
his confidence and they should together talk over 
all the probabilities of the different routes to be 
adopted. In another place we have shown what 
those difficulties were, and what the real or im- 
aginable obstacles were that confronted Stanley if 
he determined to follow the Lualaba at all hazards 
to the sea. 

In speaking of the death of young Pocoke, we 
wish to show what influence he had at last in fix- 
ing: the determination that led to his own death 
and to Stanley's fame as an explorer. One day, 
while Stanley was discussing with Pocoke the 
wisest course to pursue, the latter said: "Mr. 
Stanley, suppose we toss up, to determine whether 
we shall follow the Lualaba as far as the Lowra, 
and then strike off for Monbruto, or follow it to 
the sea?" 

Stanley, who had become almost indifferent as 
to whether one course or the other would end his 
life, agreed, and a toss-up was made, the result 
being on the side of following the river to the sea. 
The drawing of straws was then resorted to. 
Three trials of chances were made, and the de- 
29 



45o 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



cision of fate, as proposed by Pocoke, was to fol- 
low the river to the sea. He little thought that 
accidental toss was a toss-up for his own life, and 
that so trivial an affair settled his fate forever. 
We know what was Stanley's final decision, and 
though he does not acknowledge that this trial by 
chances had any effect on his final determination, 
the experience of human nature, since the world 
began, proves that it must have had. Even Na- 
poleon, who believed that Providence was on the 
side of the strong battalions, had an equally 
strong belief in his "star." While it, doubtless, 
did have more or less influence on Stanley, it did 
not weaken his faith in the "strong battalions," 
which was, in his case, a wise provision, so far as 
he could make it, against all possible and proba- 
ble contingencies. 

We have said thus much to show the real rela- 
tions that Frank Pocoke at last sustained to the 
expedition. In the long and terrible march 
through the gloomy forest after leaving Zywague, 
and before finally launching on the Lualaba, to 
quit it no more till they reached the sea or lay at 
rest forever on its solitary banks, Pocoke's shoes 
had become completely worn out. In traversing > 
half-barefoot, the tangled undergrowth, they had at 
last given out entirely, and the result was his feet 
became chafed, and at last, through constant irrita- 
tion, caused by the necessity of hastening forward 
at all hazards, the abrasions that would have 



STANLE Y IN PERIL. ac x 

healed, could they have made a short halt, became 
ulcers, so that when they again struck the Lualaba 
he was unable to walk any farther, and Stanley 
said that if at any time they would have to leave 
the river and carry around rapids, Frank would 
have to be carried also. Stanley always led the 
way over the rapids and selected the paths for 
hauling around the canoes, while Pocoke superin- 
tended the soldiers, distributed the rations, etc. 
But now he was placed on the sick-list. 

On the morning of the 3d of June, they came 
to the Mowwa Falls, around which they must carry 
and the men shouldered the goods and baggage 
and started overland for Zinga, three miles distant, 
while Stanley attempted to run two small falls, 
named Massesse and Massassa, with the boat's 
crew. Hugging the shore for about three-quarters 
of a mile, they came at last to a lofty cliff, against 
which the tide threw the down-rushing stream back 
in such fury that great whirlpools were formed and 
they steered for the centre of the river and en- 
deavored to stem the tide, but failed, After fight- 
ing fiercely against the raging of whirlpools, they 
tried again to advance in another direction, when 
Stanley discovered that his boat was fast filling 
with water, while the surface became still more 
terribly agitated at a point toward which he had 
been unconsciously drifting. The danger now 
became imminent. Shoutine to die men to leave 
off bailing and pull for life for the shore, he threw 



452 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



off his coat, belt and shoes, to be in readiness to 
swim when the boat should capsize, as he expected 
it would. A wild whirlpool was near the boat and 
for a moment it seemed certain that it would drift 
into the vortex. But by a strong effort it was 
forced away and they pulled for shore. By the 
time they had reached it, the leaky boat was half- 
full of water. Finding it impossible to proceed in 
it he returned to Mowwa Falls, and after a short 
rest took a canoe and tried to proceed. But while 
he was talking with Pocoke, the crew had scattered, 
and as those who had gone to Zinga had not re- 
turned, he determined to go overland and look 
after the goods, and leave to his chief captain, 
Manwa Sera, the supervision of the passage of the 
falls. He told him to first send forward a reserve 
canoe with short ropes fastened to the sides. "The 
crew," he said, "will pick their way carefully down 
the river until near the falls, then let the men judge 
for themselves whether they are able to take the 
canoe farther. Above all things stick to the shore 
and do not play with the river." He then bade 
Pocoke good-bye, saying he would send him his 
breakfast immediately with hammock bearers, 
shook hands and turned to climb the mountain 
toward the camp. 

Sending back the breakfast as he had promised, 
he paid a visit to the kings of Zinga. Becoming 
anxious about the boats, as this was the first time 
he had ever permitted any one but himself to lead 



DR O WNJNG OF POCOKE. a*~ 

the way in any dangerous part of the river, he 
about three o'clock took his glass and going to 
the shore began to look up the river that came 
tearing out of the mountain like a wild animal and 
shaking the shores with its loud thunder. Sud- 
denly he saw something black tossing amid the 
turbulent water. Scanning it closely, he saw it 
was an upturned canoe and to its sides several 
men were clinging. He instantly dispatched two 
chiefs and ten men to a bend toward which the 
wreck was drifting. The crew, however, knowing 
there was another cataract just below, attempted 
to right the boat and save themselves ; but, unable 
to do so, got on the keel and began to paddle for 
dear life with their hands toward the shore. As 
they got near the far bank, he saw them jump off 
the boat and swim for shore. They had hardly 
reached it when the overturned boat shot' by Stan- 
ley like an arrow and with one fierce leap dashed 
over the brink of the cataract and disappeared in 
the foam and tumult below. In a few minutes a 
messenger arrived out of breath, saying that 
eleven men were in that canoe, only eight of whom 
were saved — the other three being drowned, one 
of whom was Pocoke. Stanley turned fiercely on 
Uledi, his coxswain, and demanded how he came 
to let Pocoke, a lame man, go in the rescue canoe. 
"Ah, master," he replied, "we could not help it, he 
would not wait. He said, ' since the canoe is eo- 
ing to camp I will go too. I am hungry and cannot 



454 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



wait any longer. I cannot walk and I do not want 
you to carry me, that the natives may all laugh at 
me. No, I will go with you ;' and refusing to listen 
to Captain Manwa Sera, who remonstrated with 
him, he got in and told us to cast off. We found 
no trouble in forcing our way against the back 
current. We struck the down current, and when 
we were near the fall I steered her into the cove 
to take a good look at it first. When I had climbed 
over the rocks and stood over it, I saw that it was 
a bad place — that it was useless to expect any 
canoe to go over it without capsizing, and I went 
to the little master and told him so. He would 
not believe me, but sent other men to report on it. 
They told the same story : that the fall could not be 
passed by shooting over it in a canoe. Then he said 
we were always afraid of a little water and that we 
were no men. 'All right,' I said, 'if you say cast off I 
am ready. I am not afraid of any water, but if any- 
thing happens my master will be angry with me.' 
'Cast off/ the little master said, ' nothing will hap- 
pen ; am I not here ?' You could not have counted 
ten, master, before we were all sorry. The cruel 
water caught us and tossed and whirled us about 
and shot us here and shot us there, and the noise 
was fearful. Suddenly the little master shouted 
'Look out! take hold of the ropes! and he was 
tearing his shirt off when the canoe, which was 
whirling round and round with its bow in the air, 
was dragged down, down, down, until I thought 




Wf {Ml 


llflllrf 


! iiill 


I '1! 



STANLE Y IN GRIEF. * r y 

my chest would burst ; then we were shot out into 
daylight again and took some breath. The little 
master and two of the men were not to be seen, 
but soon I saw the little master with his face up- 
ward but insensible. I instantly struck out for 
him to save him, but we were both taken down 
again and the water seemed to be tearing my legs 
away ; but I would not give in ; I held my breath 
hard then and I came to the surface, but the little 
master was gone forever. This is my story, mas- 
ter." Stanley then examined the men separately, 
to ascertain if it were true and found it was". This 
man was brave but not foolhardy, and the best and 
most reliable in the whole party. 

Stanley very briefly expressed the sadness and 
loneliness of his feelings that night as he sat and 
looked on the empty tent of young.Pocoke, but no 
language can express the utter desolation of his 
situation. His position, surroundings, prospects, 
all combined to spread a pall black as midnight 
over his spirit and fill his heart with the gloomiest 
forebodings. Sitting alone in the heart of a 
country never before trod by the foot of a white 
man, on the banks of a mysterious river, on whose 
bosom he was to be borne he knew not where, 
the gloomy forest stretching away beyond him, 
the huts of strange natives behind him, the water 
in deep shadows rushing by, on whose foam and 
whirlpools his friend had gone down, and whose 
body then lay tossing amid the broken rocks, the 



458 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



strangely silent tropical sky, brilliant with stars, 
bending over him, the thoughts of home and friends 
far away caused a sad and solemn gathering of 
emotions and feelings around his heart till they 
rushed over it like that rushing water, and made 
him inconceivably sad there in the depths of the 
forest. With no one to talk to in his native tongue, 
no one to counsel with, without one friend on 
whom he could rely, left all alone to meet the un- 
known future, was to be left desolate indeed. Be- 
fore, he knew there was one arm on which he 
always could lean, one stout, brave heart that 
would stand unflinchingly by his side in the dead- 
liest peril, share all his dangers, and go cheerfully 
to the very gates of death with him. But now he 
was alone, with none but natives around him, with 
whom he must meet all the unknown dangers of 
the untrodden wilderness before him — perhaps be 
buried by them in the gloomy forest or left to be 
devoured by cannibals. It was enough to daunt 
the bravest spirit, appall the stoutest heart, and 
that lonely night on the banks of the Lualaba will 
live in Stanley's memory forever. 

Stanley pronounced a high eulogium on his 
young friend, saying that he was a true African 
explorer — he seemed to like the dangers and even 
the sufferings of the expedition, so well did they 
harmonize with his adventurous spirit. Quick and 
resolute, he was always docile and in the heat and 
excitement of battle would obey Stanley's slightest 



POCOKE'S CHARACTER. ,cg 

wish with alacrity. He seemed fitted for an ex- 
plorer; no danger daunted him, no obstacle dis- 
couraged him, while his frame, though slight, was 
tough and sinewy, and he was capable of under- 
going any amount of labor and could endure the 
heaviest strain. He had so endeared himself to 
Stanley that the latter said, in a letter to young 
Pocoke's parents, that his death took away all the 
joy and exultation he should otherwise have felt 
in accomplishing the great task the two had under- 
taken together. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE COMPLETED WORK. 

THE next morning Stanley arose with a sad 
and heavy heart; the cruel, relentless river 
seemed more remorseless than ever, and 
its waves flowed on with an angrier voice that 
seemed full of hate and defiance. 

Eighty men were still behind, at Mowwa, and 
the next day word reached Stanley that they had 
mutinied, declaring they would follow the river no 
longer, for death was in it. He, borne down with 
his great loss, paid no attention to the report, and 
stayed and mourned for his friend for three days 
before he set out for Mowwa. He found the men 
sullen, sad and reckless. It would be strange, 
however, if he could not regain his old influence, 
which, after much effort, he did. But he did not 
get all down to Zinga till after four days. Mean- 
time Frank's body had been found floating, face 
upward, some distance below the falls. All the 
canoes did not reach Zinga till the 19th, more than 
a fortnight after Frank's death. 

On June 20th Stanley began to make prepara- 
tions to continue on down the river. There had 
been terribly hard work in passing and getting 
round the falls where Frank lost his life, but the 

460 



INCIPIENT MUTINY. 



46l 



worst of it was, when they had succeeded, they 
seemed to have just begun their labors, for it had 
all to be repeated again. The men had lost all 
spirit and did not seem to care what became of 
them; and so, when on the 20th Stanley ordered 
the men to their work to lay brushwood along the 
tracks marked out for hauling the canoes from the 
Pocoke basin around Zinga point into the basin 
beyond, the men seemed disinclined to move. 
Stanley, in surprise, asked what was the matter 
"We are tired of this," growled a burly fellow, 
" and that's what's the matter." 

Stanley soon discovered that he was not alone 
in his opinion, and though once he would have 
quelled this spirit of rebellion with prompt, deter- 
mined action, he did not feel like using harsh 
measures now, or even harsh language. He knew 
he had tasked them to the uttermost — that they 
had followed his bidding unquestioned so far as he 
ought to ask them, and so he called them together 
to talk with them and give them an opportunity 
frankly to tell their grievances. But they had 
nothing to say, except that they had gone far 
enough and did not mean to make another effort. 
Death and famine awaited them, and they might 
as well give up first as last. Stanley did not at- 
tempt even to appeal to them, except indirectly. 
He simply told them that he too was hungry, and 
could have had meat, but saved it for them. He 
too was weary and sad. They might leave him if 



462 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



they chose — he had his boat still, and if he was 
left alone he had but to step into it — the falls were 
near, and he would soon be at rest with his friend. 
It is most pitiful and sad to see how the indomit- 
able will of this strong man had given way. The 
bold and confident manner with which he set out 
from Nyangwe — the healthy, cheery tone in which 
he addressed them when bowed down with grief 
at the farewell song of Tipo-tipo's Arabs are gone, 
and in their place had come a great weariness and 
despair. To see such a strong man forced at last 
to yield, awakens the deepest sympathy. No 
wonder he was weary of life, and longed to die. 
Under his terrible mental and physical strain of 
the last six months the toughest nature must give 
way, while to this was added the feebleness that 
comes from want of food and the utterly dreary, 
hopeless prospect before him. As he stood amid 
his dusky followers, his once sinewy frame looked 
lean and languid, and his voice had a weary, 
despairing tone. The star of fame that had led 
him on was gone down, and life itself had lost all 
its brightness, and when he had done speaking he 
turned away indifferent as to the future. The 
men listened, but their hungry, despairing hearts 
felt no sympathy. They too had reached the point 
of indifference as to the future, except they would 
no longer cling to that cruel river, and thirty-one 
packed their baggage and filed away up the ascent 
and were soon lost to view. When it was told to 



IN DESPAIR. 



463 



Stanley, he inquired how many had gone. Learn- 
ing that only thirty-one had left, and that the rest 
would stand by him to the last, he roused himself, 
and unwilling that the faithful should perish 
through the disaffection of a few men he sent 
messengers after the deserters to plead with them 
to come back. They overtook them five miles 
away and urged them to return, but in vain. Set- 
ting the faithful to work, he dispatched two men 
to cut off the fugitives and to tell the chiefs not 
to let them pass through their territory. They 
obeyed and beat the war-drum, which so terrified 
the wanderers that they were glad to return. It 
would seem strange that men who have been ac- 
customed to obey him implicitly for nearly three 
years, and had stood by him so staunchly in many 
a fight and through countless perils, could so easily 
desert him now. But despair will make even a 
wise man mad, and these poor creatures had got 
into that hopeless condition which makes all men 
reckless. Starting off with no definite aim in 
view, no point to travel toward, shows how despe- 
rate they had become. No wonder they saw no 
hope in clinging to the river, for they had now 
been over a month going three miles, and it 
seemed worse than useless to attempt to push 
further in that direction. 

On the 23d of June, the work of hauling out 
the canoes to take them over a hill two hundred 
feet high was commenced, and by noon three were 



464 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



safely on the summit. Next came the Livingstone, 
which had been recently made. It weighed some 
three tons, yet, with the aid of a hundred and fifty 
natives, they had succeeded in getting it twenty 
feet up the bank, when the cables parted and it 
shot swiftly back into the river. The chief carpen- 
ter clung to it, and being carried beyond his depth, 
climbed into it. He was only a short distance 
above the falls when the brave Uledi, seeing his 
peril, plunged into the river and swimming to the 
boat, called out to him to leap overboard instantly. 
The poor wretch replied that he could not swim. 
"Jump," shouted Uledi, " you are drifting toward 
the cataract." The terrified creature, as he cow- 
ered in the canoe, faltered out, " I am afraid to." 
"Well, then," said Uledi, " you are lost — brother, 
good-bye," and struck out with all his might for 
the shore. A minute's longer delay, and he, too, 
would have been lost, for, though a strong swim- 
mer, he was able, only by the most desperate effort, 
to reach shore less than sixty feet from the brink 
of the falls. The next minute the canoe was 
shooting over them into the boiling cauldron be- 
low. Tossed up and down and whirled about, it 
finally went down and was seen no more. 

The next day the other boats were hauled up 
and then the process of letting them down com- 
menced. This was done in safety, when the goods 
were sent overland to the Mbelo Falls beyond, 
while the boats should attempt to run the rapids. 



A PERILOUS MOMENT. 



465 



There was no abrupt descent, but a wild waste of 
tumbling, roaring water dashing against the cliffs 
and rocks in reckless fury. Stanley resolved to 
try them before risking his men, and embarking 
in the Lady Alice, with men on shore holding ca- 
bles attached to bow and stern, he drifted slowly 
downward amid the rocks. The little boat seemed 
a mere toy amid the awful surroundings in which 
it floated, and Stanley realized as it rocked beneath 
him what a helpless thing it would be in the wild 
and turbulent midstream. Just as he reached the 
most dangerous point, one of the cables parted. 
The boat swung to, when the other snapped asun- 
der and the frightened thing was borne like a 
bubble into the boiling surge and carried down- 
ward like an arrow. Down, down, between the 
frowning precipices, now barely escaping a huge 
rock and now lifted like a feather on the top of a 
wave it swept on, apparently to certain destruc- 
tion. But death had lost all its terrors to these 
hard-hunted men, and the six in the boat sat re- 
signed to their fate. The brave Uledi, however, 
kept his hand on the helm and his steady eye on 
the hell of waters around and before them. 
Sometimes caught in a whirlpool that tossed them 
around and around, and then springing like a pan- 
ther down a steep incline, the boat continued to 
plunge on its mad course with death on every side, 
jintil at last it shot into the Niguru basin, when 
they rowed to the sandy beach of Kilanga. Here, 
. 30 



466 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



amid the rocks, they found the broken boat in 
which Pocoke went down, and the body of one of 
the men who was drowned with him jammed 
among the fragments. 

Stanley looked back on this perilous ride with 
strange feelings. It seemed as if fate, while try- 
ing him to the utmost, was determined he should 
not perish, but that he should fulfill the great mis- 
sion he had undertaken. H : s people seemed to 
think so too, for when they saw his boat break 
adrift and launch into the boiling rapids they gave 
him up for lost ; but when they caught sight of 
him coming toward them alive and well, they gave 
way to extravagant joy and exclaimed, " it is the 
hand of God — we shall reach the sea." The escape 
was so wonderful, almost miraculous, that they 
could not but believe that God had spared him to 
save them all. 

They now pushed on with little trouble to 
Mpakambendi, the terminus of the chasm ninety- 
three miles long, in which they had been struggling 
a hundred and seventeen days. This simple state- 
ment conveys very little to the ear, yet what fear- 
ful shapes does it conjure up to the imagination ! 
Ninety-three miles of rapids and cataracts, with only 
here and there a stretch of smooth water! A mile 
and a quarter a day was all the progress they had 
made now for nearly four months. No wonder 
the poor Arabs gave up in despair and refused any 
longer to follow the river. 



BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS. 



469 



Although below the chasm the stream did not 
flow with that placidity it did through the cannibal 
region, still it did not present any dangerous 
rapids, as they glided on toward the sea with new 
hopes. The natives along the banks were friendly, 
though difficulties were constantly arising from the 
thieving propensities of the Arabs. Two were 
seized by the natives, and Stanley had nearly to 
bankrupt himself to redeem them, on which he 
gave the men a talk and told them plainly that 
this was positively the last time he would redeem 
a single prisoner seized for theft, nor would he 
resort to force to rescue him. 

It was now the 7th day of July, and although 
hope had revived in the hearts of the people, some 
of the sick felt that they should never see their 
native island again. Two died this day and were 
buried on the banks of the river whose course they 
had followed so long. They now had clear, though 
not smooth sailing for some nine or ten miles, 
when they came to another fall. This was passed 
in safety, with the assistance of the natives, who 
assembled in great numbers and volunteered their 
services, for which they were liberally rewarded. 
More or less broken water was experienced, but 
not bad enough to arrest the progress of the boats. 
Provisions were getting scarce, and consequently 
the thieving propensity of the Arabs to obtain them 
more actively exhibited itself, and one man, caught 
while digging up roots in a garden, was held as a 



470 IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 

prisoner. The men asked his release, but Stanley, 
finding that the price which the natives asked for 
his redemption was far greater than his means to 
pay, would not interfere and the man was left to 
live and die in perpetual slavery. But this did 
not stop thieving, and soon another man was 
caught in the act and made prisoner. This case 
was submitted to the chiefs, and their decision was 
to let him remain in slavery. But the men were 
starving, and even this terrible exhibition of the 
doom that awaited them was not sufficient to deter 
the men from stealing food. The demands of the 
stomach overrode all fears of punishment, and three 
or four days after another man was detected and 
made a prisoner. He, too, was left a slave in the 
hands of the natives. Dangerous rapids were now 
and then encountered, but they were passed without 
accident, and Stanley at last found that he was 
close to the sea. He announced the fact to his 
people, who were intensely excited at the news. 
One man, a boatman, went crazy over it, and, 
shouting "we have reached the sea, we are at 
home," rushed into the woods and was never seen 
again. The poor wretch, probably, lay down at 
last in the forest, with the groves of Zanzibar, in 
imagination, just ahead of him. Sweeping down- 
ward, frequent rapids occurred, but the expedition 
kept on until it reached the district of Kilolo. 

Stanley here lay down weary and hungry, but 
was aroused by musket-shots. His people, starv- 



CAPTURED FOR STEALING. 



471 



ing and desperate, had scattered about, entering 
every garden they saw to get something to eat, 
and the natives had attacked them. Soon wounded 
men were brought in, whom the natives had shot. 
Several had been captured whom Stanley refused 
to redeem, and they were left to pine in endless 
captivity, never again to see the hills of Zanzibar, 
as he over and over again had promised they 
should. 

Changing from bank to bank, as the character 
of the river changed, the expedition, on the 30th 
of July, heard in advance the roar of the cataract 
of Isingila. Here Stanley ascertained that they 
were but five days' journey from Embomma, a dis- 
tance always traveled by land by the natives, on 
account of the obstructions in the river. 

As the whole object of the expedition had been 
accomplished, and the short distance beyond these 
falls to the sea was known to Europeans, he re- 
solved to leave the river and march by land to 
Embomma. At sunset the Lady Alice was drawn 
out of the water to the top of some rocks and 
abandoned forever. To Stanley it was like leav- 
ing a friend behind. The boat had been his com- 
panion for nearly three years. It had carried him 
over the waters of the lakes, dashed at his bidding 
among hostile canoes, rocked him to sleep amid 
the storms, borne him all safely over foaming 
cataracts, and now it must be left ignobly to rot in 
the wilds of Africa. As he turned to cast a last 



472 



4 

IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



farewell glance on it resting mournfully on the 
rocks, the poor boat had almost a human look, as 
if it knew it was to be left behind and abandoned 
forever. 

On the i st of August, the famished, weary- 
column took up its line of march towards the sea 
— the mothers carrying infants that had been born 
amid the cataracts, and the larger children trudg- 
ing slowly after. Nearly forty of the one hundred 
and fifteen were sick, and though it was painful to 
travel, they were cheered by the promise that in 
four or five days they should once more look on 
the sea, towards which their longing hearts had 
been turned for so many weary months. Coming 
to a village, the king stopped them and told them 
they could not pass without they gave him a bottle 
of rum. Uledi, hastening up, asked Stanley what 
the old man wanted. "Rum," he replied. Hitting 
him a severe slap in the face, " there is rum for 
him," growled Uledi, as the drunken negro tumbled 
over. The latter picked himself up and hurried 
away, and Stanley and his worn and wasted band 
passed on without further molestation. It was 
hard to get food, for one party would demand rum 
and refuse to furnish it without, while another 
wanted them to wait till the next market-day. 

On the third day they reached Nsanda, the king 
of which told Stanley it was but three days' march 
to the sea. The latter asked him if he would 
carry a letter to Embomma for him. He replied 



WORD TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD. ah? 

no, but after four hours of hard urging he agreed 
to furnish guides for three of Stanley's men. 

The next day they set out, carrying the follow- 
ing letter : — 

Village Nsanda, August 4th, 1877. 
To any gentlemanwho speaks English at Embomma: 

Dear Sir: I have arrived at this place from 
Zanzibar with one hundred and fifteen souls, men, 
women and children. We are now in a state of 
imminent starvation. We can buy nothing from 
the natives, for they laugh at our kinds of cloth, 
beads and wire. There are no provisions in the 
country that may be purchased except on market- 
days, and starving people cannot afford to wait for 
these markets. I therefore have made bold to 
dispatch three of my young men, natives of Zan- 
zibar, with a boy named Robert Ferugi of the 
English mission at Zanzibar, with this letter, crav- 
ing relief from you. I do not know you, but I am 
told there is an Englishman at Embomma, and as 
you are a Christian and a gentleman, I beg of you 
not to disregard my request. The boy Robert 
will be better able to describe our condition than I 
can tell you in a letter. We are in a state of the 
greatest distress, but, if your supplies arrive in 
time, I may be able to reach Embomma in four 
days. I want three hundred cloths, each four 
yards long, of such quality as you trade with, which 
is very different from that we have; but better than 
all would be ten or fifteen man-loads of rice or 



474 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



grain to fill their pinched bellies immediately, as 
even with the cloths it would require time to pur- 
chase food, and starving men cannot wait. The 
supplies must arrive within two days, or I may 
have a fearful time of it among the dying. Of 
course I hold myself responsible for any expense 
you may incur in this business. What is wanted 
is immediate relief, and I pray you to use your 
utmost energies to forward it at once. For 
myself if you have such little luxuries as tea, 
coffee, sugar and biscuits by you, such as one man 
can easily carry, I beg you, on my own behalf, that 
you will send a small supply, and add to the great 
debt of gratitude due to you upon the timely 
arrival of supplies' for my people. Until that 
time, I beg you to believe me, 

Yours, sincerely, 

H. M. Stanley, 
Commanding Anglo-American Expedition, 

for Exploration of Africa. 

P. S. — You may not know my name ; I therefore 
add, I am the person that discovered Livingstone. 

H. M. S. 

After writing this letter, Stanley called his chiefs 
and boat's crew to his tent and told them of his 
purpose to send a letter to Embomma for relief, 
and wanted to know which were the most reliable 
men — would travel fastest and least likely to be 
arrested or turned back by obstacles. The ever- 



A STARVING COMPANY. 



475 



ready Uledi sprang to his feet and exclaimed, as 
he tightened his belt, "O master, I am ready now!" 
The other volunteers responded as quickly, and 
the next day, the guides appearing, they started 
off. In the meantime, the expedition resumed its 
slow march, having- eaten nothing but a few nuts 
to stay their stomachs. Coming to a village, the 
chief demanded payment for passing through his 
country, and armed his followers ; but on Stanley 
threatening to destroy every man in the place, his 
rage subsided, he shook hands, and peace was 
made and sealed by a drink of palm wine and the 
promise of a bottle of rum. 

In the meanwhile, Uledi and his companions 
pressed swiftly on, but when- about halfway the 
guides, becoming frightened, deserted them. Un- 
able to obtain others, they resolved to follow the 
Congo. All day long they pressed steadily for- 
ward, and, just after sunset, reached Boma, to 
which the name Embomma had been changed, 
and delivered the letter. The poor fellows had 
not tasted food for thirty hours, and were well- 
nigh famished. They soon had abundance, and 
the next morning (August 6th), while Stanley was 
leading on his bloated, haggard, half-starved, stag- 
gering men, women and children, Uledi started 
back with carriers loaded down with provisions. 

At nine o'clock, the expedition had to stop and 
rest. While they lay scattered about on the green 
sward, suddenly an Arab boy shouted, "I see 



476 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



Uledi coming down the hill!" and sure enough 
there were Uledi and Kacheche leaping down the 
slope and waving their arms in the air. "La il 
Allah, il Allah!" went up in one wild shout — "we 
are saved, thank God!" Uledi had brought a 
letter to Stanley, who had scarcely finished read- 
ing it when the carriers appeared in sight laden 
with provisions. The sick and lame struggled to 
their feet and, with the others, pressed around 
them. While Stanley was distributing them, one 
of the boat-boys struck up a triumphant song, 
that echoed far over the plain. They then set to 
and ate as only starving men can eat. 

When all were supplied, Stanley turned to his 
tent, to open the private packages sent to him. 
Heavens! what a vision met his astonished sight! 
A few hours before, he had made his breakfast 
on a few green bananas and peanuts, washed with 
a cup of muddy water, and now before him were 
piled champagne, port and sherry wines, and ale, 
and bread and butter, and tea, and sugar, and 
plum-pudding, and various kinds of jam — in short, 
enough luxuries to supply half a regiment. How 
Stanley felt that night as he looked on his happy, 
contented followers, may be gathered from the 
following extract from a letter he sent back next 
day to his kind-hearted deliverers. After ac- 
knowledging the reception of the bountiful sup- 
plies, he says: 

"Dear Sirs — Thou eh strangers I feel we shall 



GREETED BY FRIENDS. 



477 



be great friends, and it will be the study of my 
lifetime to remember my feelings of gratefulness 
when I first caught sight of your supplies, and my 
poor faithful and brave people cried out, 'Master, 
we are saved — food is coming ! ' The old and the 
young men, the women and the children lifted 
their wearied and worn-out frames and began 
lustily to chant an extemporaneous song in honor 
of the white people by the great salt sea (the 
Atlantic), who had listened to their prayers. I 
had to rush to my tent to hide the tears that would 
come, despite all my attempts at composure. 

" Gentlemen, that the blessing of God may attend 
your footsteps, whithersoever you go, is the very 
earnest prayer of 

"Yours faithfully, 

" Henry M. Stanley." 

That day was given up to feasting and rejoicing, 
and the next morning — a very different set of men 
— they started forward. All this and the next day 
they marched cheerfully over the rolling country, 
and on the third, while slowly descending a hill, 
they saw a string of hammocks approaching, and 
soon Stanley stood face to face with four white 
men, and so long had he been shut up in a country 
of blacks that they impressed him strangely. 
After some time spent in conversation they in- 
sisted on his getting into a hammock, and borne 
by eight stout bearers he was carried into Boma, 



473 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



where rest and abundance awaited him. He stayed 
in this village of a hundred huts only one day and 
then embarked on a steamer for the mouth of the 
river, a hundred or more miles away, Turning 
northward he reached Kabinda, where one of the 
expedition died. The reaction on these poor crea- 
tures after their long and desperate struggle was 
great, and they fell back into a sort of stupor. 
Stanley himself felt its influence and would fall 
asleep while eating. The sense of responsibility, 
however, aroused him and he attempted in turn to 
arouse his men. But, notwithstanding all his 
efforts, four died of this malady without a name 
after he reached Loanda, and three more after- 
wards on board the vessel that carried them to 
Cape Town. 

Stanley gave his poor followers eight days' rest 
at Kabinda and then in a Portuguese vessel pro- 
ceeded to Loanda. Here the governor-general 
offered to send him in a gun-boat to Lisbon. This 
generous offer was very tempting, and many would 
have accepted it, but Stanley would not leave his 
Arab friends who had shared his toils and hardships, 
and shown an unbounded trust in his promise to see 
them back to Zanzibar. A passage being offered 
them in the British ship Industry, to Cape Town, 
Stanley accepted it, and, instead of going home 
where comfort and fame awaited him, turned south- 
ward with his Arab followers. At Cape Town he 
was received with every mark of distinction, and 



APPROACHING ZANZIBAR. 4 y Q 

delivered a lecture there giving a brief account of 
the expedition, especially that part of it relating to 
the Congo. A British vessel here was placed at 
his disposal, and while she was refitting Stanley 
gave his astonished Arabs a ride on a railroad, on 
which they where whirled along at the rate of 
thirty miles an hour. Of all the wonders they had 
seen since they left Zanzibar, nearly three years 
before, this was the greatest. Entertainments 
were prepared for them, suitable garments for that 
cold latitude provided, till these poor, simple 
children of nature were made dizzy by the atten- 
tions they received. Among other things a special 
evening was set apart for them in the theatre, and 
they were thrown into raptures at the performance 
of the acrobats and made the building ring with 
their wild Arab shouts of approval. 

At length, on the 6th of November, nearly two 
months from the time they reached the Atlantic 
coast, they set sail for Zanzibar. Stopping for two 
days at Natal to coal, where every possible atten- 
tion was lavished on them, they again put to sea 
and stretched northward through the Indian 
Ocean. 

Day after day these now contented people lay 
around on deck, drinking in health from the salt 
sea air. AD but one was shaking off every form 
of disease contracted in their long wanderings. 
This one was a woman who was slowly dying, and 
who was kej t alive alone by the thought of seeing 



480 



IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA. 



her home once more. At last the hills of Zanzi- 
bar arose over the sea, and as these untutored 
Arabs traced their well-known outline, their joy 
was unbounded, and Stanley felt repaid for the 
self-denial that had refused a passage home from 
Loanda to stay by his faithful followers to the very 
last. Their excitement increased as the caves and 
inlets grew more distinct, and at last the cocoanut 
and mangrove-trees became visible. As the vessel 
entered port their impatience could not be re- 
strained, and the captain of the vessel, sympa- 
thizing with their feelings, had no sooner dropped 
anchor than he manned the boats, while the eager 
creatures crowded the gangway and ladder, each 
struerfine to be the first to set foot on their native 
island. As boat-load after boat-load reached the 
shore, with a common feeling they knelt on the 
beach and cried " Allah !" and offered up their 
humble thanksgiving to God, who had brought 
them safely back to their homes. 

The news of their arrival spread like wild-fire 
on every side, and soon their relatives and friends 
came flocking in from all directions, and glad shouts, 
and wild embracings, and floods of glad tears 
made a scene that stirred Stanley's heart to its 
profoundest depths. Still, there was a dark side 
to the picture. Scores of those that came rushing 
forward to greet them, fell back shedding tears, 
not of gladness, but of sorrow, for they found not 
those whom they fondly hoped to meet. Of the 



HOME AGAIN! 



48l 



three hundred that had set out, nearly thee years 
before, only one hundred and twelve were left — 
and one of these, the poor sick woman, lived 
only long enough to be clasped in her father's 
arms, when she died. 

The great journey was ended, and Stanley, after 
paying off the living and the relatives of the dead, 
at last started for home. As he was about to 
enter the boat that was to bear him to the ship, 
the brave Uledi and the chiefs shoved it from shore, 
and seizing Stanley, bore him through the surf on 
their shoulders. And when the latter stood on the 
deck, as the vessel slowly steamed away, the last 
object he saw on shore through his eyes filled 
with tears, was his Arab friends watching him till 
he should disappear from sight 

An enthusiastic reception awaited him in Eng- 
land, while from every part of the continent dis- 
tinguished honors were bestowed upon him. 

He had performed one of the most daring 
marches on record— traced out, foot by foot, one of 
the largest lakes of Central Africa, followed its 
mightiest river, which, from the creation, had been 
wrapped in mystery, from its source to its mouth, 
and made a new map of the u dark continent" 

Anions the testimonials of the estimation in 
which the great work he had accomplished was 
held, may be mentioned the gift of the portrait of 
King Humbert of Italy, by himself, with the su- 
perscription : 
31 



,g 2 /A" 7/Z£ WILDS OF AFRICA. 

"ALL* INTREPEDO VIAGGATORE, 
ENRICO STANLEY. 

UMBERTO RE. 
TO THE INTREPID TRAVELER, 
HENRY STANLEY. 

KING HUMBERT." 

The Prince of Wales also complimented him 
warmly on his achievements, while the Khedive of 
Egypt conferred on him the high distinction of the 
Grand Commandership of the Order of Medji- 
die, with the star and collar. The Royal Geo- 
graphical Society, of London, gave him a public 
reception, and made him Honorary Correspond- 
ing Member, and the Geographical Societies and 
Chambers of Commerce of Paris, Italy and Mar- 
seilles sent him medals. He was also made 
Honorary Member of the Geographical Societies 
of Antwerp, Berlin, Bordeaux, Bremen, Hamburg, 
Lyons, Marseilles, Montpelier, Vienna, etc., etc. 
Honorary membership of almost every distin- 
guished society in England and on the continent 
were conferred on him, and all seemed to vie 
with each other in heaping honors on the most 
intrepid traveler of modern times. 

As Americans, however, it gives us great plea- 
sure to record the following sentiment, showing 
that Stanley takes especial pride in being an 
American. He says : " For another honor I have 
to express my thanks — one which I may be par- 



STANLEY'S CROWNING HONOR. 



483 



doned for regarding as more precious than all the 
rest The Government of the United States has 
crowned my success with its official approval, and 
the unanimous vote of thanks passed in both 
houses of legislature, has made me proud for life 
of the expedition and its success." 



THE END. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: June 2003 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



